DSR fails to impress farmers, area dips by 32% this season

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, January 13

The direct seeding of rice (DSR), in which seeds are sown in the field rather than by the traditional way of transplanting seedlings from nursery, has failed to impress farmers in the district, the government has confirmed.

It was evident from the fact that the area under the water-saving paddy plantation method has gone down by over 32 per cent from 2,797 hectares in 2022-23 to 1,888 hectares in 2023-24 crop season, official figures have revealed.

However, the Agriculture Department was still trying its best to promote the DSR technique by granting Rs 1,500 per hectare financial assistance to farmers, who had opted for the technique, as per the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO), Dr Narinder Singh Benipal, told The Tribune here on Saturday that 314 farmers, who had sown paddy through the DSR technique over 1,888 hectares of land in the district in 2023-24, had been given subsidy of Rs 28.32 lakh.

He said the area of paddy sown through the DSR technique in 2023-24 was mere 0.73 per cent of the total 2,56,900 hectares cultivated under rice in the district during the last crop season.

In 2022-23, the area of paddy sown through the DSR technique in Ludhiana district was 1.08 per cent of the total 2,58,800 hectares of paddy cultivated area in the district, which was highest in the state.

Dr Benipal said a whopping 2,46,600 hectares, which accounted for 96 per cent of the total 2,56,900 hectares of paddy cultivated area in the district in 2023-24 was sown with non-basmati (parmal) rice while the rest only 10,300 hectares, which was just 4 per cent of the total paddy area, was cultivated with basmati rice.

In 2022-23 also, the trend of non-basmati and basmati rice cultivation was the same in the district with 96 per cent and 4 per cent area, respectively.

The CAO said the Agriculture Department had run an extensive awareness and education drive to motivate the farmers to opt for the DSR, for which Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had given a clarion call to save water and natural resources in the agrarian state.

High and low

Among 22 districts, Ludhiana has ranked tenth lowest as far as the DSR area was concerned in the 2023-24 paddy sowing season.

While Muktsar has topped the state with the maximum DSR area, Pathankot remained the laggard with the minimum paddy area through the DSR technique.

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