Use water judiciously, agri official tells farmers

Tribune News Service
Amritsar, July 2

Chief Agriculture Officer Dr Vinay Kumar has urged farmers to use water judiciously while irrigating paddy as the water table has gradually been going down.

He said, “Some farmers allow water to stay in their paddy fields right from sowing the crop till harvesting it. However, it adversely affects the water table. It is sufficient to allow water to stay in paddy field for a fortnight after transplantation. Thereafter, the field must be irrigated after a gap of two days.”

The Chief Agriculture Officer said it is important that cracks should not be developed in the field and irrigation must be stopped a fortnight before ripening the crop.

He said paddy could be transplanted after preparing beds to decrease the irrigation process by about 25 per cent.

The Chief Agriculture Officer said without puddling, beds could be prepared by bed planters and paddy must be transplanted in the middle of slopes of high rise bed.

Each plant of paddy must be planted at a distance of nine centimetres, he said.

Meanwhile, Agriculture Officer Ranjot Singh Sandhu said farmers must utilise the drip irrigation technique during cultivation of maize which could considerably curtail the amount of water during irrigation.