Paddy yield, production hit 5-year low, down 7-8 per cent from 2023

In what appears to be a disturbing trend, the yield and production of paddy has touched a record five-year low in Ludhiana district this Kharif season, the government has confirmed.

While the paddy yield has decreased by over 7 per cent as compared to 2023, the production of rice has gone down by over 8 per cent in 2024 as compared to 2023, the official figures have revealed.

The maximum area, almost 46 per cent, sown with PR-126 variety of paddy and insufficient rainfall during the initial sowing time were the main reasons behind the dip in yield and production, experts have cited.

The development assumes significance as the area under paddy crop was also the lowest this Kharif season as compared to the previous five years. However, it was merely 0.8 per cent less than 2023.

The results of experiments on the paddy crop conducted by the Agriculture Department this season have showed that 7,014 kg rice per hectare yield has been found in Ludhiana in 2024, which was 564 kg per hectare, accounting for 7.44 per cent less than 7,578 kg per hectare of grains yielded from the paddy crop here in 2023.

As much as 18 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of paddy has arrived at mandis in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population, this season, which was 1.6-LMT, accounting for 8.16 per cent, less than 19.6-LMT of rice that had reached here during the Kharif season in 2023.

A senior official told The Tribune here on Saturday that the yield of paddy, as per over 100 experiments conducted this season so far, has gone down to 7,014 kg per hectare, which was 7.44 per cent less than 7,578 kg per hectare of paddy yield recorded in the district during the previous Kharif season 2023-24.

It was also lowest in the past five years as compared to 7,127 kg per hectare yield recorded here in 2022-23, 7,192 kg per hectare in 2021-22, and 7,296 kg per hectare reported in Ludhiana in 2020-21.

He said the results of over 100 experiments conducted so far have pegged the total production of 18-LMT of paddy this season, which was 8.16 per cent less than 19.6-LMT paddy produced in the district during 2023-24.

The production was lowest this season in the past years as compared to 18.45-LMT production reported here in 2022-23, 18.6-LMT in 2021-22 and 18.86-LMT of paddy produced in the district in 2020-21.

This season, the paddy area of 2,56,600 hectares has also gone down by almost 1 per cent (precisely 0.8 per cent) compared to the 2,58,700 hectares of rice cultivation in the district in 2023-24.

This was also the lowest in the past seasons as compared to 2,58,800 hectares in 2022-23, 2,58,700 hectares in 2021-22, and 2,58,600 hectares of area that was sown under paddy here in 2020-21.

Taking into consideration this year’s average yield, the production of 17,99,792.4 tonnes of paddy was 1,60,207.6 tonnes, accounting for 8.17 per cent less than the previous year’s total production of 19.6-LMT rice.

The official figures revealed that the area under basmati rice, however, went up from 10,300 hectares, which was 4 per cent of the total area under paddy, in 2023-24, to 12,500 hectares, which was almost 5 per cent of the total paddy area in 2024.

The production of basmati rice has also seen an upswing trend with almost 60,000 MT produce already reaching markets as compared to 56,000 MT arrival in 2023 and 34,000 MT arrival recorded in the district during the corresponding period in 2022.

According to official data, as much as 1,17,476 hectares, which accounted for 45.8 per cent of total 2,44,000 hectares under paddy (non-basmati), was sown with PR-126 variety of paddy while PR-131 variety was sown on 30,985 hectares, which was 12.1 per cent of the total non-basmati area, PR-121 on 21,479 hectares, 8,4 per cent, PR-122 on 8,796 hectares, 3.4 per cent, PUSSA-44 on 20,832 hectares, 8.1 per cent, other PR varieties on 15,469 hectares, 6 per cent, while other varieties were sown on 28,963 hectares, which was 11.3 per cent of the total area under non-basmati rice this season.

Comparatively, PR-126 variety was sown on 93,073 hectares, which was 36.2 per cent of the total non-basmati area in the district last year and PUSSA-44 was sown on 85,853 hectares, which accounted for 33.4 per cent of the total non-basmati area in 2023 and PR-121 was sown on 29,584 hectares, 11.5 per cent, while rest of the area was sown with other varieties.

Paddy down, basmati up

This season, Ludhiana district has seen a new trend of paddy yield, production and area going down while basmati recording an upswing.