Poor response to direct seeding of rice in Haryana

Haryana government’s efforts to save groundwater with direct seeding of rice seems to have failed to impress the state’s farmers, who are not showing any interest in adopting the new method.

As per sources in the agriculture department, out of 31 lakh acres of land under paddy in the state, only 31,000 acres of land has been brought under direct seeding method.

This even as the government has announced a cash subsidy of ₹3,000 to ₹4,500 per acre to attract farmers towards this technique.

Farmers complain that the direct seeding method has a few drawbacks.

“Low yield and uncontrolled weeds are a major problem of this technique. Farmers have to spend extra for weed control to increase their production,” says Praveen Kumar, a paddy grower of Nilokheri town of Karnal district.

Officials of the state agriculture department too accept that there are some flaws in this method. “Uncontrolled weed is the biggest problem in this technique. And as there are no specific chemicals for weed control, farmers have remove weeds manually, thus increasing the cost of production,” says Pradeep Kumar Meel, deputy director, state agriculture department.

The method, however, does have a few benefits. As per officials of the state agriculture department, the direct seeding method consumes 40-50 percent less water than the conventional method of transplantation. They say that the technique also helps reduce the cost of production by 10-15 per cent.

According to agricultural experts, the direct seeding method is the need of the hour, especially in paddy sowing areas such as Karnal, Kurukshetra, Yamunanagar, Kaithal and Ambala districts to deal with the issue of depleting groundwater levels. About 40% of all irrigation water goes to paddy cultivation in this region.

Besides saving groundwater, this technique also helps to save up to 27% diesel as pumping energy is not required, say experts.

THE GOVT HAS BEEN TRYING TO PROMOTE THE TECHNIQUE WITH AN AIM TO SAVE GROUNDWATER