M A I N   N E W S

A Tribune Special
Grain exports erode Punjab’s natural resources
Aditi Tandon
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 22
The title ‘granary of India’ has cost Punjab dearly. Continuous export of its harvest produce to other parts of the country over the past many years, has robbed the state’s once-rich soil of its precious minerals and nutrients.

In the first-ever study on the estimated losses to Punjab’s natural reserves due to grain exports over the past 26 years, soil scientists from Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, have come out with startling facts about the state’s depleting soil productivity and groundwater table. The study shows that Punjab’s contribution of about 87 per cent of its total rice production and 62 per cent of its total wheat production to the Central foodgrain pool has caused “massive depleting of water reserves and minerals, rich in plant nutrients.”

In 26 years, Punjab contributed 342 million tonne foodgrains to the Central pool out of its total production of 513 million tonne. This has left the state poorer by a whopping 13 million tonne of precious plant nutrient, state the findings. On an average — two-lakh kg of nitrogen, one lakh kg of phosphorus, 180,000 kg of potassium and 30,000 kg of sulphur is being exported out of Punjab annually through foodgrains. No compensation is, however, coming to the state’s farmers in the form of royalty from the Centre. The study clearly strengthens Punjab’s demand of royalty on foodgrains, on a par with states like Bihar, which get royalty for mining of “Currently Punjab’s annual foodgrain productivity is as high as 10.5 metric tonne per hectare. This is straining our resources severely. Punjab produced 10.2 million tonne of rice and 14.5 million tonne of wheat in 2006-07. But these improvements in production are based on overexploitation of resources like nutrients and water. Punjab needs and keeps just a third of its produce; the rest is sent out.

Farmers must therefore be compensated with royalty,” argues Dr Viraj Beri, head, soils department, PAU, who led the study, co-authored by M.S. Aulakh and Vijay Arora.

Detailed findings only strengthen Beri’s argument. Analysis of the 26-year data shows that Punjab has lost 5.1 million tones of its nitrogen, 2.5 million tones of phosphorus, 4.7 million tones of potassium and 0.75 million tones of sulphur for production of foodgrains.

“The most serious is potassium depletion, as potassium is not being replenished at all,” Beri says. As much as 800 million tonne of potassium-bearing minerals, supplied to field crops, have gone out of Punjab already, the study shows.

Another big casualty of grain export has been water reserve. The fall in Punjab’s water table varies from 50 to 70 cm per year. As per estimates, 1,000 litres and 1,500 litres of water gets consumed in producing one kg of wheat and one kg of rice grain, respectively.

“Punjab, which exported 342 million tones of foodgrains in 26 years, has lost 42 million hectare metres of water reserve in the process. The loss is humungous,” investigators say.

Right now, Punjab’s average annual water export of 1.62 million hectare metres is far greater than its annual water deficit, which is 1.27 million hectare metre.

Water export in terms of foodgrains is causing faster depletion of groundwater table, scientists say, strengthening Punjab’s case for royalty on foodgrains.

Incidentally, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had raised this point at the recent meeting of National Development Council. At present, the Central scheme of royalty on minerals and natural deposits is confined to some states where minerals are mined as such.