Start paddy sowing from June 18 onwards: PAU
As per PAU’s findings, between 1998 to 2018 period, the average annual rate of fall in the water table of the state was 0.53 metres. The situation in some central districts is worse, where the rate of dip in the water table is more than 1 metre per annum
Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has proposed sowing of paddy in Punjab from June 18 to 24. The university has sent the recommendations to the state’s agriculture department for making a plan and circulating the same to the farmers.
The idea behind the staggered cultivation is to save the subsoil water and ensure uninterrupted power supply to all 14 lakh plus agriculture tubewells that feed 35 lakh hectares (88 lakh acres) of agriculture land.
As per PAU’s findings, between 1998 to 2018 period, the average annual rate of fall in the water table of the state was 0.53 metres. The situation in some central districts is worse, where the rate of dip in the water table is more than 1 metre 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 to May 15 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.
“During these years, the shorter duration varieties became available, offering the opportunity of shifting the transplanting start date further close to the onset of monsoon and transplanting date was shifted to June 20 during 2018,” wrote PAU’s rice agronomist Buta Singh Dhillon and principal rice breeder Ranvir Singh Gill in a paper.
The plan for staggered cultivation will be announced within a week, said an officer in the state agriculture department.
According to PAU vice-chancellor SS Gosal, the university’s short-duration varieties of 95 days, such as PR 126 and PR 131, are getting popular with farmers as in the last season 33% of the area under paddy was covered by these short-duration varieties. “In the upcoming season, this is expected to go up to 50%,” Gosal said, adding that moving away from the long-duration varieties such as PUSA44, which has a life span of 150 days, the shorter varieties have shown successful results and the crop can even be sown by the start of July month coinciding with the onset of the monsoons. Short-duration varieties also produce less quantity of paddy stubble.