Six districts of Punjab will start transplanting paddy in the fields from June 11. These districts are Muktsar, Faridkot, Bathinda, Mansa, Fazilka and Ferozepur while in the rest of the 17 districts, the transplantation will begin from June 20.
The six districts identified are largely dependent on canal water for irrigation and the rest of the 17 districts, including Moga, Sangrur Malerkotla, Barnala, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali, Ropar, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Pathankot and Gurdaspur get water for irrigation from the tubewells and will start transplantation from June 20.
The Punjab agriculture department has notified the sowing schedule as per the recommendations of Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana.
Earlier in April, the PAU had proposed sowing of paddy in Punjab between June 18 and 24. The university has sent the recommendations to the state’s agriculture department for making a plan and circulating the same to the farmers, however, the sowing has been advanced by a week.
The idea behind the staggered cultivation is to save the groundwater and ensure uninterrupted power supply to all 14 lakh plus agriculture tubewells that feed 35 lakh hectares (88 lakh acres) of agricultural land. The government has already notified and assured an 8-hour uninterrupted power supply to the tubewells.
{{/usCountry}}The idea behind the staggered cultivation is to save the groundwater and ensure uninterrupted power supply to all 14 lakh plus agriculture tubewells that feed 35 lakh hectares (88 lakh acres) of agricultural land. The government has already notified and assured an 8-hour uninterrupted power supply to the tubewells.
{{/usCountry}}As per PAU’s findings, between 1998 and 2018 period, the average annual rate of fall in the water table of the state was 0.53m. The situation in some central districts is worse, where the rate of dip in the water table is more than 1m per annum.
To curb the falling water level, the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act was formulated in 2009, mandating delayed sowing paddy beyond June 10 and May 10 as the date for starting the process of setting up nurseries. The law also has a penalty clause for the paddy grower violating the norms.
The act was revised and May 15 was set as the date for setting up nurseries and the start of transplanting saplings from June 15 in the year 2014. This did not have any effect on the yield. Rather, record yields were observed in 2016 and 2017.
“Farmers pressurise the government to advance paddy transplantation as they used to cultivate long-duration variety PUSA-44, but now farmers need not panic as there are short-duration varieties given by the PAU,” said PAU vice-chancellor SS Gosal.
He said that the evaporation rate is maximum during the dry days of June as temperatures hover above 40° Celsius, so it is better to delay the transplantation.
The state government last year had imposed a ban on the long-duration PUSA-44 variety, which takes 160 days to mature but has given a grace for this year.
“In my opinion, farmers are avoiding PUSA-44 and there are alternatives available such as PR 116, 124 and 132, which have a span of 130 days,” Gosal said, adding that PAU has given 22,000 quintals of short-duration variety seeds to the farmers which would cover 27.5 lakh acres.
In Punjab, paddy is sown in kharif season on over 80 lakh acres. These varieties can be transplanted even in the first week of July (coinciding with the onset of monsoon) for best results, Gosal added.
The state government has recommended paddy sowing by direct seeded method (DSR) from May 15. According to director agriculture Jaswant Singh farmers are adopting this method as there is a labour shortage and it is cost-effective.