Farmers go for direct seeding
BATHINDA : Amid the shortage of migrant farm labourers and higher charges demanded by locally available workers, farmers in the state have shown significant interest in the direct seeding of rice (DSR).
As per information, nearly 7 lakh hectares of land have been mechanically cultivated till Tuesday, moving away from the traditional practice of sowing nursery and then transplanting the same.
While DSR started from June 1, the conventional rice transplantation in puddled fields will commence from Wednesday.
Raja Singh, a farmer from Bathinda’s Kahan Singh Wala village, said his expense has decreased significantly after adopting the mechanised sowing.
“I opted the DSR technique to overcome the problem of shortage of farm workers. My cost input per acre with mechanised sowing was just ₹800 for the hired seed driller. Last year, I paid about ₹3,200 per acre for manual sowing. Paddy seeds have already germinated in the field,” said Raja, who owns 32 acres of land.
Another farmer from Muktsar’s Smalsar village, Diljinder Singh, said as the migrant workers are unable to reach Punjab for the sowing this season, the locally available farmers have started demanding up to ₹5,000 per acre.
“Farmers are unable to meet the steep increase in labour cost. But DSR is not only highly cost-effective, it also save water and electricity as opposed to the conventional method,” he said.
A progressive farmer from Kotshamir in Bathinda, Sandeep Singh, said his 11-year long experience of DSR has been very encouraging. “I am able to save up to ₹4,500 per acre with DSR by way of cost-cutting on labour and water. Yield per acre is also good. In the current situation where labour availability is a challenge, DSR is a good alternative for paddy farmers,” he said.
Bathinda chief agriculture officer Bahadur Singh Sidhu said the district has seen direct sowing on 22,000-hectare area since June 1. “We expect the figure to grow further in the next fortnight,” he added.
State agriculture secretary KS Pannu said the department had set the target to bring 5 lakh hectares under the DSR system.
“We have already exceeded 7-lakh hectare area, with 4,000 specialised DSR machines purchased by farmers. Also, scores of wheat sowing machines have been modified by farmers to sow paddy. Our engineering department is also guiding farmers on how to modify the machines by spending as little as only ₹1,000 per machine,” said Pannu.
Principal agronomist of Punjab Agriculture University Dr MS Bhullar revealed that the field inputs on adoption of DSR are encouraging.
“It is for the first time that farmers across the state have expressed their interest in the technology that is less time-consuming and not at all labour-intensive,” he added.
NEARLY 7 LAKH HECTARE LAND WAS CULTIVATED UNDER WATER-SAVING TECHNOLOGY SO FAR