Welcome To District Fatehgarh Sahib(Punjab)--Introduction
Fatehgarh Sahib District came into existence in year 1992 and now is one of the developed districts of Punjab. Geographical Area of the district is 114779 hectares out of which 102028 hectares is Cropped Area having Cropping Intensity 186.80%. District has won National Productivity Award for the year 1993-94, 1994-95 and 2003-04 from Government of India. But still there is a gap between the potential yield and the actual yields of the major crops. There are many factors influencing the yields. Some of them are as below:
Seed is major input in agriculture. Good quality seed bears good yields. But few (less than 7%) farmers are able to replace their seed every year due to less availability of such seed. Seed treatment is a must and play major role in getting better yields.
Soil
Soil in some parts of the district is saline, deficient in micronutrients, an impermeable sub-soil layer has developed due to continuous cultivation of paddy crop, very less crop residue is incorporated in the soil, which are affecting crop yields adversely.
Water:
Ground water is declining in quantity as well as in quality. Ground water level of the district is approximately 20m deep which is lowest in Punjab. All the blocks of the district fall in Dark Zone. Farmers are investing huge money to deepen their bore wells & replacing centrifugal pumps into submersible ones which results to increased cost of production.
Institutional:
Non-existence of any agriculture college/university/departmental training centre (except one PNB Farmer Training Center) is also a major factor which can influence in betterment of crop production techniques. Organization: There is no any active farmer organization/platform that can help them in selling their produce in other parts of the country or abroad. Farmers of district are ready to grow crops other than conventional crops but they hesitate to grow them due to lack of marketing facilities/market information.
