Staggered paddy sowing in Punjab from June 18

Chandigarh, May 5

The Punjab Government has come up with a plan for staggered transplantation of paddy in June, so as to ensure the power demand does not shoot up abruptly. The state has been divided into four zones for this purpose.

Flooding of fields is required at the time of paddy transplantation from the nursery to the fields. Thus, demand for power goes up substantially during these days. To ensure the demand does not peak suddenly, paddy transplantation will begin in six districts each from June 18, 20 and 22 and in the remaining five districts from June 24.

A detailed plan in this regard has been prepared by the Agriculture Department. Farmers not going in for direct seeding of rice will be asked to start preparing their nursery on May 18 onwards, a senior officer in the department told The Tribune.

He said the staggered transplantation would ensure the labour requirement for transplantation was met throughout the state. This has been done keeping in mind the time of paddy harvesting in the state, with districts that harvest paddy first being allowed to transplant paddy first.