E-Paper
Paddy yield up in Punjab this time despite agri dept’s prediction of fall
Paddy yield in the current kharif season has gone up to 2,645kg per acre from the last year’s 2,509kg even as the state agriculture department and farm experts had
Paddy yield in the current kharif season has gone up to 2,645kg per acre from the last year’s 2,509kg even as the state agriculture department and farm experts had predicted a fall in production due to bad weather conditions this time.
Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) experts attributed the rise to new varieties of paddy and increase in soil fertility due to incorporation of crop residue into the soil that was started in the last kharif season.
The trend was found in 1,982 crop cutting tests conducted at 1,271 locations in all 22 districts of the state. The department reached the conclusion on the basis of two-thirds of the total experiments.
Agriculture department joint director (statistics) Major Singh said the trend is encouraging. “Despite rainfall at the maturing stage of crop in September month the crop cutting experiments have shown increase in yield,” he said.
The results of the remaining one-third tests are expected to arrive within a week or so. “But it won’t impact the results,” he added.
The highest-ever yield in the state was recorded in the 2017 kharif season at 2,659kg per acre.
Secretary (agriculture) Kahan Singh Pannu said, “Farmers should understand that mixing of stubble with soil increases organic matter and its nutrients and water retention capacity. The increase in yield was also due to fall in use of fertilisers in the kharif crops, particularly paddy,” he said.
“The paddy yield fell in 2018 due to heavy rainfall in the last week of September,” he added.
PAU vice chancellor BS Dhillon said, “Our department of climate change is studying the phenomenon of fall in minimum temperatures during the nights in the last few years, erratic rainfall and increase in the number of days of sunshine during the kharif season. The final yield results will be combined once the basmati produce is recorded,” he added.
