Amritsar agriculture officials encourage farmers to use DSR tech

Amritsar, June 16

The District Agriculture Department organised a programme in Khalchian near here to encourage farmers to adopt direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique and to provide technical know-how to them in this regard.

Agriculture Extension Officer Satwant Kaur said farmers in Khalchian village have shown a great interest in sowing rice using DSR technique. She said 260 acre of land in the area was sown with the new water conserving technique.

“With manual or mechanical transplanting, a farmer has to spend around Rs 6,000 to Rs 7,000 per acre. With DSR, a farmer hardly has to spend anything from his pocket as the state government is providing a financial aid of Rs 1,500 per acre,” she said.

Kaur added that with DSR technique, farmers also need to keep in mind few technical issues. Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Paramjit Singh and Agriculture Officer Dr Balwinder Singh said those farmers who could not use DSR technique in their fields this year should keep a watch of the DSR fields near them so that they can know that the technique is better than manual or mechanical transplanting.