Agriculture Department intensifies drive for DSR in Amritsar district

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 5

On the instructions of Director Agriculture Dr Gurvinder Singh Khalsa and Chief Agriculture Officer Jatinder Singh Gill, agriculture extension staff visited farmers to encourage them to go for direct seeding of rice (DSR). During his visit to several villages of the district, Extension Officer Prabhdeep Singh Gill appealed to the farmers of the district to adopt the DSR technique.

Gill said by sowing paddy crop through this technique, 15 to 20 per cent water could be saved, thereby recharging 10 to 12 per cent underground water. It would also help in saving labour cost and there was less attack of diseases on the crop sown via the DSR technique. With the DSR, the farmers could manage straw easily in the fields and field could be prepared for the next crop.

Last year, farmers had done direct seeding of rice in their fields, thus saving water and their additional expenditure. Extension Officer Prabhdeep Singh Gill further said the Punjab Government would give financial assistance of Rs 1,500 to the farmers for adopting the DSR. The farmers should sow rice directly only in medium-to-heavy soils and avoid doing so in poor soils.

He appealed to all the farmers to bring at least one-third of their land under the technique so that the groundwater level could be checked from going down further. He said it was necessary to have the right spraying techniques for the control of weeds and spraying of weedicides should be conducted in the evening.

Sub-Inspector Sandeep Singh, officers, employees and farmers were present on the occasion.