Punjab Govt offers Rs 1,500/acre aid for direct seeding of rice

Chandigarh, April 30

The Punjab Government will give financial aid of Rs 1,500 per acre to all farmers who go in for direct seeding of rice in the upcoming kharif marketing season. This will wean away farmers from transplantation of paddy, which is detrimental to the environment due to overexploitation of groundwater.

Announcing this, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann today said farmers opting for direct seeding of rice could start its cultivation from May 20. The direct seeding technique will also mitigate labour woes faced by farmers ahead of each paddy season. Since labour for transplantation is getting expensive, use of direct seeding of rice will help farmers save on production cost.

Paddy transplantation begins only in June. For the past couple of years, as many districts in Punjab have seen a drastic fall in its groundwater levels, environmental experts have been warning against going ahead with paddy cultivation as it is depleting the groundwater level very fast.

Of the 150 blocks in the state, 117 are categorised as “overexploited”, according to a statement issued in Parliament by the Centre earlier this year.

Water level is going down in Punjab because of cultivation of paddy through transplantation technique. Last year, farmers in the state had shown a keen interest in direct seeding and 15.02 lakh acres were brought under this technique. This year, with the announcement of financial aid, the government hopes the area under direct seeded rice would double.

Mann exhorted farmers to also convince their relatives and friends to adopt the technique. “Most districts are in red zone as underground water level are declining rapidly,” he said.

117 of 150 blocks ‘overexploited’

• Water level is falling in Punjab because of cultivation via transplantation technique
• Of 150 blocks in the state, 117 are categorised as ‘overexploited’, says a statement by Centre
• Last year, 15.02 lakh acres in the state were brought under the new technique