DSR receives tepid response in Ludhiana district

Tribune News Service

Nitin Jain

Ludhiana, July 15

The target fixed under the direct seeding of rice (DSR) seems to be a distant dream as less than 8 per cent of the targeted area was covered in the district so far, the administration has confirmed.

Though the district administration was undertaking an aggressive campaign to motivate the farmers to opt for the DSR, the majority of the farmers were going for the traditional paddy transplantation in the district, the officials have said.

A visit to the various parts of the district revealed that the widespread rainfall during the past few days has facilitated the paddy transplantation through traditional means while the acute shortage of power and water had earlier remained the main reasons for the poor response to the transformation from the traditional paddy sowing, for which the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had given a clarion call in order to save water and natural resources in the agrarian state.

The Deputy Commissioner, Surabhi Malik, who was monitoring the DSR progress on a daily basis, told The Tribune, here on Friday, that 2,797 hectares area has been covered through DSR in the district so far, which accounted for 7.72 per cent of the target area of 36,240 hectares, in Ludhiana.

While a progressive farmer has sown paddy over 16.19 hectares through DSR, which was the maximum individual achievement so far, almost 2,54,203 hectares of area has already been covered through traditional paddy transplantation in the district.

With this, a total of 2.57 lakh hectares have already been covered under the paddy cultivation in the district so far, which accounted for 99.3 per cent of the total 2,58,677 hectares put under paddy farming in Ludhiana district every season.

Malik said Jagraon block was leading the district with a maximum of 457 hectares under paddy through DSR, Khanna remained the laggard with the least 129 hectares sown through DSR.

Among other blocks, Mangat block has covered 331 hectares through DSR, followed by Machhiwara (324 hectares), Sudhar (312 hectares), Sidhwan Bet (294 hectares), Pakhowal (243 hectares), Ludhiana (201 hectares), Samrala (182 hectares), Dehlon (171 hectares), and Doraha has achieved 153 hectares DSR cultivation so far.

Divulging the details of top ten progressive farmers, who have come forward to opt DSR in the district so far, the ADC (Development), Amit Kumar Panchal, said Manpreet Singh of Talwara village in Sidhwan Bet and Lakhvir Singh of Gobindgarh village in Sudhar have sown 35 acres each through DSR, followed by Mahinder Singh of Bhairomuna village 34 acres, Shingara Singh of Swaddi Khurd village 31 acres, Sukhwinder Singh of Uchai Daud village 27 acres, Lakhwinder Singh of Sehjomajra village and Balvir Singh of Goansgarh village 25 acres each, Jarnail Singh of Hans Kalan village and Sukhwinder Singh of Ismailpur village 20 acres each, and Jagdeep Singh of Jhamat village in Ludhiana block has put his 18 acres under DSR cultivation.

Chief Agriculture Officer (CAO) Narinder Singh Benipal said 2,48,203 hectares have been cultivated with non-basmati paddy while basmati has been grown on 6,000 hectares in the district this season so far.

He said the district had achieved only 11.06 per cent target of paddy sowing through DSR by covering 3,640 hectares of the targeted area 32,900 hectares through non-traditional paddy growing.

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