Direct seeding of rice technique fails to find favour with growers

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, December 29

If there is one area where Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party has taken baby steps to make a difference, it is in the state’s traditional agricultural practices. Their agenda is clear — to save the state’s depleting groundwater while ensuring a thriving agrarian economy.

It is another thing that the initial changes in agriculture policy, announced almost immediately after the Aam Aadmi Party came to power — giving a push to the summer moong cultivation and using direct seeding technique for rice by incentivising it — seem to not have been much thought over. Little wonder that the moong cultivation in areas that traditionally grow cotton led to whitefly attack on the cotton sown after moong.

Govt proposals for next year

• Crop diversification plan on anvil. Focus on horticulture, other crops that consume less groundwater
• Short duration and high-yielding paddy varieties to be encouraged
• Heat resistant wheat varieties to be developed
• Wheat sowing using mulching techniques to be encouraged to mitigate impact of high temp
• Blockchain technology to be used for tracking potato seeds and growth
• Mating disruption to deal with the whitefly attack

Notably, the cotton production this year has fallen by over 70 per cent because of the attack on the crop by whitefly and pink bollworm. This has led to the cotton growers fetching prices between Rs 9,000 and

Rs 10,000 per quintal.

The direct seeding of rice (DSR), too, was almost rejected by farmers as the use of this water saving technique for paddy cultivation was far below the target set by the government. Rather, the use of DSR technique was much below its use in the last year. “Saving groundwater is something that the state needs to do aggressively to delay its imminent desertification. The government’s intention was good, but to bring a major change, the entire ecosystem too has to be changed. This year, power pangs during the paddy cultivation season and the rather poor availability of canal water during the sowing time for the direct seeding led to the decline in area under the DSR,” said farmer Kuldeep Singh of Doraha.

This year, the harsh summer and the delayed monsoon too had an adverse impact on some crops, forcing farmers to revert to safer crops where minimum support price is guaranteed. To give the state government its due, the two procurement seasons — rabi marketing season in April-May and kharif marketing season now — have gone smoothly.

Basmati and cotton growers have got premium prices for their produce, despite cotton farmers suffering losses because of insect attacks. With the production hitting rock bottom and demand remaining high, cotton reaching mandis is fetching high prices.

The government, upon assuming power, has also cleared the dues of sugarcane growers. Cane crushing so far this year has remained smooth and the state government is also paying a higher State Advised Price — up by Rs 20 per quintal.

Agriculture being the mainstay of the state economy, a change in policy is accepted by farmers only if it leads to higher realisation of profit from the sale of produce. Realising this, the government has already gone to the drawing board to come up with a new agriculture policy in 2023.

The Punjab State Farmers and Farm Workers Commission is already talking to all stakeholders to draw up a comprehensive policy, with an emphasis on crop diversification, which is being personally looked into by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.