Ruchika M Khanna
Chandigarh, July 6
The state government seems to have failed to convince farmers to go in for direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique in order to save excessive groundwater extraction for paddy cultivation.
Against a target of 5 lakh acres, farmers used this method to sow paddy on only 1.49 lakh acres (30 per cent).
Though the Agriculture Department has blamed rather “wet season in May” for the poor response, farmers said the DSR method leads to unwanted growth of weeds and grass in the paddy crop, which adversely affects the yield.
The government set a target to cover 43,860 acres in Bathinda, Muktsar (38,930 acres), Ferozepur (38,120), Sangrur (33,290 acres) and Fazilka (32,710 acres).
However, the area under DSR technique in most of these these districts is rather low—Bathinda (11,440 acres), Ferozepur (8,839 acres) and Sangrur (4,523 acres).
Only Muktsar (45,857 acres) and Fazilka (42,630 acres) managed to surpass their targets. Four districts—Fatehgarh Sahib, Kapurthala, Hoshiarpur and Ropar—witnessed less than five per cent area under the DSR, while Barnala, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Moga, Pathankot, Nawanshahr saw five-10 per cent of the targeted area under the DSR.
Kulwinder Singh, a marginal farmer from Nadampur village near Bhawanigarh, said, “The seeds required in the DSR method are more than paddy transplantation technique. Those who opted for this method last year complained a lot of unwanted growth of weeds and grass in the crop.”
Sukhwinder Kaur of Shergarh village in Talwandi Sabo said, “We do realise that paddy is a water-guzzling crop. Many farmers have opted for late sown, but early maturing varieties.”
Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said, “It takes time to adopt a new technique. There are certain misconceptions about the DSR technique among farmers. Our extension officers are guiding farmers on best practices to resolve the problem of unwanted grass and weeds.”
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