Moving away from traditional practice, Karnal farmer shows the way

Seven farmers from Gurpartap’s friend circle have adopted DSR technique on around 200 acres in Assandh in Karnal.

Even as most of the farmers are reluctant to shun the traditional method of paddy cultivation on waterlogged fields which takes millions of litres of groundwater, Gurpartap Singh from Assandh in Karnal has emerged as a torchbearer by adopting the direct seeded rice (DSR) technique on 65 acres.

Even as most of the farmers are reluctant to shun the traditional method of paddy cultivation, Gurpartap Singh from Assandh in Karnal has emerged as a torchbearer by adopting the DSR technique. He said since the yield and quality of the grain remain the same in both methods, I decided to adopt DSR technique as it takes less water than the traditional method. (HT Photo)

Advocate by profession, Gurpartap, 48, owns 75 acres of agricultural land and this year only 10 acres are under the traditional method while he adopted the DSR technique on his 65 acres.

Gurpartap said he began the trial of the DSR technique four years ago on two acres. Later, he extended it to 10 acres and the last year, he had 25 acres of paddy under the DSR method.

“Since the yield and quality of the grain remain the same in both the methods, I decided to adopt DSR on 65 acres this year as it takes less water than the traditional technique”, Gurpartap added.

He said that the DSR technique not only helps to save priceless groundwater but also is more profitable than the traditional method as the government has provided a cash incentive of ₹4,000 per acre. Besides, it helps to save ₹5,000 per acre on transplantation and puddling.

Gurpartap has also motivated farmers in his friend circles to adopt this technique as his uncle Narender Pal has adopted sown paddy on his 45 acres under the DSR method. “We were not impressed with him in the beginning as we were of the view that he will leave paddy cultivation soon. But last year, we noticed that the paddy yield from fields under DSR and traditional method was same,” said Narender Pal.

Now, seven farmers from Gurpartap’s friend circle have adopted DSR technique on around 200 acres in Assandh and even his nephew Jagdeep Singh from Balona village has adopted this technique on 15 acres.

According to the experts, it can help reduce water consumption by 35 per cent over the traditional process of transplanting rice seedlings from a nursery to waterlogged fields. They said that it requires irrigation at regular intervals and there is no need of flooding the fields. The Haryana government had announced ₹4,000 per acre cash subsidy against the set target of 1 lakh acres in 12 districts to promote water conservation encouraging the farmers to grow paddy under the DSR method. He said that there are no restrictions on the DSR method and his crop is now two months old and he will get enough time to empty fields for the next crop.

As per the figures of the state agriculture department, over 21,973 farmers of the state have registered their 1.02 lakh acres for the direct seeded rice scheme.