GOVERNMENT FOR MECHANISED TRANSPLANTATION AS ALTERNATIVE

The state government is now looking at mechanised sowing as an alternative to the manual plantation.

Secretary (agriculture) Kahan Singh Pannu expressed the hope that paddy sowing in the state would shift from the labour-intensive transplantation to the mechanized sowing this season. Referring to the trials conducted by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) during the past five years on direct seeding rice (DSR) varieties, Pannu said sowing is done with machines and it has shown encouraging results. He added that the government is offering 40% subsidy on DSR machines. “The number of machines may not be sufficient to sow paddy across the state, but it would set a new trend,” he said. “The yield of DSR varieties and paddy transplanted on fields with puddle of water during the trials has been the same. In fact, the new method is beneficial to farmers as it needs less irrigation,” he said, while adding that they would issue an advisory in this regard to the farmers. “We still have 50 days left with us. Hopefully, we would deal with the issue,” he said. Talking to HT, PAU vice-chancellor BS Dhillon said,

“Now is the time to move away from traditional methods of paddy transplantation. We have made a prototype of a machine for DSR. More such machines could be manufactured and supplied to farmers.” Dhillon said the machines manufactured during these days may not cater to the entire state, but they would mark the beginning of a good start for paddy sowing. He advocated use of happy seeders and zero-till drills for paddy sowing.