Go for short-duration paddy varieties: Agri experts to farmers

Amritsar, June 15

With paddy transplantation starting from Saturday (today) onwards, the district Agriculture Department has appealed to the farmers to cultivate short-duration varieties to help in conserving water. Officials of the Agriculture Department say that short-duration varieties are known to use less water as compared to the traditional varieties.

The state government had earlier notified June 15 as the starting date for paddy transplantation in the district. However, owing to problems such as shortage of labour and inadequate power supply for tubewells, paddy sowing work is going on at a slow pace.

Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) Tajinder Singh said paddy transplantation work would pick up pace after certain issues are streamlined. He said work usually picks up speed after the first rain as it becomes easier to meet the requirement of flooding the fields which is required for puddling in the fields.

The CAO further said the fields for paddy cultivation should be levelled using laser land levellers. “The farmers should avoid overflooding in the fields as it amounts to wastage of water,” he said, adding that water should be evenly distributed in the field which is possible only if the field is properly levelled.

After visiting Joga Singh Wala village in Jandiala area where the direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique has been adopted by farmers, Tajinder Singh said the technique is best for the cultivation of rice as it reduces dependence on manual labour and helps in saving water. He said field officials of the department are visiting fields to provide technical assistance to farmers to properly use the DSR technique.