Ludhiana: With wheat production in Punjab reaching an all-time high, well-known agricultural scientist and Rajya Sabha MP Dr M S Swaminathan on Wednesday urged the state government to provide farmers with an additional Rs 100 per quintal over the Minimum Support Price (MSP) as was the case in Mahrashtra and Rajasthan. “This is what we call procurement price,” said Swaminathan while interacting with farmers.

Wheat procurement in Punjab has touched an all-time high of 124.65 lakh tonne. Out of the total procurement, government agencies have procured almost

Planning Commission nod for cancer hospital in Malwa; water-logging, depleting water table to be dealt with. The Planning Commission today approved an annual plan outlay of Rs 14,000 crore for Punjab for the 2012-13 financial year. The amount has been hiked by 10 per cent as compared to last year's outlay of Rs 12,800 crore.

Ludhiana: Cultivation of basmati rice in Punjab must be discouraged and the farmers advised to distribute the area under three non-basmati paddy varieties with a different maturity duration, depending upon the availability of labour and water at the time of transplanting, suggest experts from Punjab Agricultural University here.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal has initiated major eco-tourism projects at Chhatbir Zoological Park in Ajitgarh district and two others projects in Ludhiana district. Reviewing its progress, Sukhbir said Chhatbir Zoological Park with a population of 1200 animals of 90 rare species could be a major centre of attraction if properly marketed and promoted. He also suggested that Punjab could also go in for night safari on the pattern of Jurong Night Safari at Singa
pore. Similarly, two more such sites for eco-tourism have been identified in Ludhiana district.

Three years after over a lakh trees were axed and nearly two lakh plants uprooted for widening of the National Highway-I, Punjab is finding it hard to meet its afforestation target due to paucity of forestland. So much so that the state Forest Department was now planting saplings on common village land and in educational institutes.

Bijlipur (Punjab): For some time now, the village of Bijlipur has been attracting a slew of local news TV crews and even reporters from Canadian radio stations. The village has something that most of Punjab can’t boast of: a sex ratio in favour of women.

Vijay Kumar from Nangal, who was being treated for swine flu at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital here, died today. This is the first such casualty in the state this year.

Dr Deepak Bhatia, nodal officer, Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme, said his relatives and friends who had tended him during sickness were being given "prophylactic treatment".

Sources said there was no cause for alarm as the authorities had enough stocks of medicine to treat swine flu cases.

Ludhiana Even as lakhs of trees are being chopped for various development works, a recent report of Forest Survey of India (FSI) has presented a pleasant surprise for Punjab. As per the report, the agrarian state has registered an increase of 100 square kilometres of in 2010-11.

The figure is highest in the country. Out of the eight states that registered an increase, Jharkhand is placed second (60 sqkm). Incidentally, Haryana could increase its forest cover by only 9 sqkm, while the hill state Himachal Pradesh couldn’t even achieve 5 sqkm target, says the FSI report.

Chandigarh: Rain and hailstorm lashed many places across Punjab on Tuesday. Agriculture experts said the showers that lasted for around half-an-hour may harm the crop about to be harvested.

“The harvest has been delayed due to earlier cold weather conditions and the untimely rain will further damage the crop,” said Sangrur farmer Piara Singh. Sangrur agricultural officer Bakhshish Singh said the hailstorm would delay harvest at a few places.