This was stated by Deputy Commissioner Gurinder Singh Grewal, while addressing a district-level seminar organised in connection with National Soil Conservation Week at Khizrabad village today.

He said the department had already constructed 40 water harvesting dams in the district, which had transformed 2,000 hectares of wasteland into agriculture land by providing water for irrigation purposes.

He directed the officials of the department to prepare a project report after conducting a survey for providing irrigation facilities to the farmers of Changer area, situated near Kiratpur.

Expressing concern over the day-to-day decrease in the area of agriculture land, Grewal said the problem could be solved by transforming 70,000 hectares of wasteland into agriculture land in the state. He said the farmers should take steps to transfer their respective wasteland into agriculture land with the advise of agriculture experts. He called upon farmers to plant maximum number of trees, especially poplars to check soil erosion.