During his three-day visit to Punjab which began on Saturday, BJP president Nitin Nabin will make only one personal visit — to decorated agriculture economist SS Johl at the latter’s Gurdev Nagar residence in Ludhiana.
The visit scheduled for Monday will mark an important chapter in the ruling BJP’s engagement with the raging agrarian crisis in Punjab.
Johl, a Padma Bhushan, is a passionate votary of economic diversification of crops in Punjab and of moving wheat and paddy cultivation patterns out of the state.
Johl has in the past produced two reports — in 1996 and 2002 — on ways to end Punjab’s agrarian stress.
He has also been keen on providing solutions around this challenge to the government.
Nabin will discuss with Johl the way forward for agricultural and economic revival in the state.
Johl has been arguing that the government should procure crops other than wheat and paddy at MSP, including maize, cotton, pulses and oil seeds and compensate farmers to diversify.
It will be the first high-level government engagement with the top scientist on the issue.
As former National Professor of Agricultural Economics of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, and former VC of Punjabi University Patiala and Punjab Agricultural University Ludhiana, Johl, the BJP feels, can bring solutions to the table to solve the vexed issue of farm distress in the border state.
Johl has also chaired the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices in the past.
