Farmers advised to follow PAU recommendations

Tribune News Service

Muktsar, June 29

Officials of the Agriculture Department on Saturday urged the farmers to follow the recommendations of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and the department to cultivate paddy and basmati to avoid unnecessary expenditure.

Baljinder Singh Brar, Chief Agriculture Officer, Muktsar, said most of the farmers were using agro-chemicals and fertilisers, which were not needed at all. This phenomenon is not just increasing the expenditure of farmers but also polluting the soil and water resources, he added.

Brar said if the recommended dose of the DAP was applied to the wheat crop then DAP could be skipped in succeeding paddy, basmati and cotton crops.

“About 15 to 20 kg of zinc sulphate (21%) can be applied on paddy/basmati crops. Some farmers are applying a mixture of soil and ferrous sulphate in the standing crops to overcome the iron deficiency in the sandy soils. This is a totally wrong practice. If there is an iron deficiency, one-kg ferrous sulphate and one-kg manganese sulphate should be mixed into 150 liter of sprayed water in weekly intervals,” said Brar.

He added that many farmers were putting carbendazim in the standing crop for the prevention of foot rot disease, which had no use. The Chief Agriculture Officer said this disease could be treated through seed and seedling treatment. Before the transplanting of nursery, the root of the seedling should be dipped in a solution of 1 per cent carbendazim for six hours, he said. Meanwhile, Karanjit Singh, project director of Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA), Muktsar, appealed to the farmers not to use chemical in a granulated form in paddy. The use of glyphosate has also been banned by the government. He urged the farmers to avoid the use of acephate, triazophos, thiomethoxam, carbendazim tricyclazole, buprofezin, carbofuran, propiconazole, and thiophanate methyl in paddy and basmati because their residue remain in grains, which is harmful for human health.

He urged the farmers to use pesticides with green triangle only, which are less harmful to the environment.