Zone-wise paddy cultivation will help save power, bring relief to farmers: CM

In a path-breaking initiative, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said the state government had decided to start cultivation of paddy from June 1 for which the state had been divided into three zones.

He said paddy cultivation in Faridkot, Bathinda, Fazilka, Ferozepur and Sri Muktsar Sahib districts would start from June 1 and in Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Tarn Tarn, Rupnagar, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Sri Fatehgarh Sahib and Hoshiarpur districts, it will start on June 5.

He said in the remaining districts of Ludhiana, Moga, Jalandhar, Mansa, Malerkotla, Sangrur, Patiala, Barnala, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Kapurthala, it would start on June 9. The Chief Minister was at the PAU on Saturday to interact with farmers during the ‘Sarkar-Kisan Milni’.

He said it would help save power in all districts of the state during the paddy season. It would avoid complications for farmers in selling their paddy harvest due to high-moisture content in October. Mann said the zone-wise cultivation of the paddy crop would be ensured in the state and necessary planning and arrangements were already being made by the state government for the purpose.

The Chief Minister said the state government was contemplating to ban the cultivation of water guzzling Pussa 44 variety of the paddy. The cultivation of this variety needs around 152 days and it requires 64 lakh litres of water per acre and costs Rs 7,500 per acre to the government for power. Likewise, the farmers had to bear expenditure of nearly Rs 19,000 per acre for cultivation of the variety and it produces paddy straw 10 per cent more than other varieties.

The Chief Minister said the state government would ensure minimum eight hours of regular power supply to the farmers during the paddy season. In areas where the canal water supply was available, power would be supplied during night for eight hours.

Mann further said previous governments never bothered about making any effort to save the groundwater and the farmers remained hit as they failed to get proper supply of water.

However, the Chief Minister said after assuming charge, his government had revived 15,947 water courses in the state due to which water had reached even remote villages.

He said at the time when he had assumed the charge of office, only 21 per cent canal water was being used in the state for irrigation purposes. However, he said it was a matter of pride and satisfaction that today 75 per cent of the canal water was being used for irrigation purposes.

The Chief Minister said canal water was a boon for irrigation as the mineral-rich water enhances fertility of soil on the one hand and reduces pressure on groundwater on the other. It also reduces the burden on the power sector, thereby enabling the state government to provide uninterrupted electricity to every sector. The state government was making strenuous efforts for providing adequate marketing and MSP on alternate crops such as maize to bring farmers out of the rut of wheat/ paddy circle.

He said the sole motive of organising the interaction was to reduce the gap between decision makers and stakeholders so that policies were designed as per needs of the farmers.

The CM said the state produces 80 per cent of the total basmati in the country, adding that the production would be further enhanced in coming days.

He said it would further give a fillip to the Basmati industry and supplement the income of farmers, besides saving the precious natural resource in the form of water.

Mann gave a clarion call to the farmers to adopt basmati cultivation across the state and assured them that the state government would make every effort to ensure that they did not suffer any losses during cultivation of basmati. He said every effort would be made to ensure that assured prices were made available on Basmati produce.