Report on Faridkot farmer sent to Centre

FARIDKOT:THE Faridkot administration has submitted a report to the Centre on an incident wherein a farmer from Sadiq village in the district burnt his standing sugarcane crop on 2 acres of land.

Jagtar Singh, who was unable to find buyers for his crop due to the lockdown, had set his crop on fire on June 30. In the absence of any sugar mill in the area, he used to sell cane to juice sellers. But he had no buyers left as they too were out of business for the past over three months.

After the incident, the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare had sought a report from the district administration. “The government of India asked to submit a report over the incident. The report was prepared with assistance of agriculture department and it was submitted to the union ministry on Thursday. As paddy season was on the peak, the farmer wanted to clear his field to sow paddy. He was not able to sell the standing crop,” said deputy commissioner Vimal Kumar Setia.

AGRICULTURE DEPT TO HELP THE FARMER

Chief agriculture officer Harnek Singh Rode said it was a very unfortunate incident that a farmer burned his sugarcane crop as he failed to find buyer for the crop. “The district agriculture department has decided to assist the farmer to sow paddy crop in his fields. The department will provide saplings of paddy crop, pesticides and weedicides to him free of cost. A team has visited the village and assured him all kind of assistance,” he said.

“As there are many other farmers in this area who grow sugarcane, we have proposed that cooperative societies should be asked to set up jaggery units all over the district. There is high demand of jaggery in the state so it will provide farmers a platform to sell their produce,” he added.