Area under kidney bean to be increased in Ludhiana

Punjab's Agriculture Department aims to increase area sown under kidney bean (rajma) here as part of its crop diversification plan.
Kidney bean has been sown on 28 acres of land in dozen odd villages of the district.
Initially, this crop has been sown on trial basis, but eventually the department plans to bring more area under this crop, an official said here.
Additional Chief Sectary Suresh Kumar, who visited one such farm at village Bhadla Neecha near Khanna, today appreciated Deputy Commissioner Ravi Bhagat's efforts and assured that this crop would be introduced to farmers across the state on a large scale.

Chief Agriculture Officer Sukhpal Singh Sekhon said the rajma crop is very profitable as with an input cost of around Rs 10,000 per acre, farmers can easily earn a profit of around Rs 40,000 per acre from the crop, which takes only 90 days to grow.
"We started this crop on trial basis from one kanal of land and in a period of three years, now 650 acres of this crop is sown in Amritsar district, out of which 70 acres is sown in village Manawala alone," he said.