Summary:
Area under basmati in Punjab in these years was 3,75,200 acres, 5,02,000 acres and 7,63,000 acres, respectively, he said. He added the area under basmati in Amritsar was 88,500 hectares while in 2017, it was 92,000 hectares. Overall profitability of basmati is better than paddy," he said.Amritsar chief agriculture officer D S Chhina said this year there had been a little decline in basmati acreage in the district. He added that due to extensive use of pesticides and fungicides, samples of basmati had failed abroad following which many consignments had been rejected in the US, West Asia, and Europe. AMRITSAR: After drop in basmati production in Punjab, farmers of the state have again started showing interest in the long-grained crop, especially Pusa 1121 and Pusa PB 1509 varieties.Punjab agriculture secretary Kahan Singh Pannun informed TOI that output of basmati in 2015-16 was 37.52 lakh tonnes, which fell to 20.91 lakh tonnes in 2016-17.He added that in 2017-18 the basmati production improved to 25 lakh tonnes..