Chandigarh, May 9 (IANS): The Punjab government will extend 25 to 33 per cent subsidy to unemployed youth for setting up dairy farming units in the state, a minister said on Wednesday.

The offer has been made under the state's crop diversification policy to encourage youth to look at producing milk products, purchasing milch animals and for purchasing milking machines.

Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said in a statement here on Wednesday that under the comprehensive policy, the government has decided to provide self employment to 500 unemployed youth in every district by encouraging them to set up dairy farming units.

He said that concerted efforts are being also made to enable the farmers to fetch competitive price of milk to provide enabling atmosphere for the marketing of milk in other states. Sidhu said that under this policy, the department has also chalked out a training programme at each of the Diary Training and Extension Centres to provide latest technical training to the young farmers to make the dairy farming a self-sustaining and profitable profession.

"To minimize the economic burden upon the already debt ridden farming community, the government has decided to provide 25-33 per cent subsidy to the young budding farmers to set up dairy units," Sidhu added.

'Green Revolution' state Punjab contributes 50 per cent food grains (wheat and paddy) to the national kitty despite having just 1.54 per cent geographical area of the country.