Increase in basmati acreage likely in Haryana; farmers switch to early maturing Pusa-1509

KARNAL: Increase in the area under long-grained basmati varieties in Haryana is likely this year as farmers are showing interest in sowing Pusa-1509, the early maturing basmati variety of paddy. According to farmers and officials of the state agriculture department, farmers prefer this high-yielding variety as it gives higher return. It consumes less water and fetches good prices from the private traders.

More than a week is left for paddy transplantation to begin in Haryana (officially from June 15) but sowing of Pusa-1509 is on at full swing in almost all northern districts which have tubewell irrigation system including Karnal, Kurukshetra, Kaithal and Yamunanagar.

Kurukshetra’s Ladwa-based farmer Raj Kumar said he is planning to transplant all of his 10 acre under Pusa-1509 this year as last year, he got around Rs 65,000 per acre from Pusa-1509 against Rs 52,000 per acre he got on three acre under parmal varieties. He said till last year, he used to grow a mix of the popular basmati variety Pusa-1121 and parmal rice. “But last year, the rates were good and farmers who had sown Pusa-1509 earned good profit. So, this year, I have shifted to this variety from the hybrid parmal rice,” he said.

“Pusa-1509 is sold to private buyers at anytime while the procurement of parmal varieties begins in the first week of October by government agencies. They do not get enough time for the next crop between paddy and wheat,” said a farmer who has already transplanted five acre of Pusa-1509 in Karnal’s Indri block.

“This year, we are expecting that the area under paddy cultivation will remain around 12.50 lakh hectare and the area under

basmati varieties may remain above 50%,” said Jagraj Dandi, joint director (statics) of the Haryana state agriculture department.

FARMERS ARE EXPECTING HIGHER RETURNS AS THE PRICES OF RICE HAVE INCREASED AND THEY ARE EAGER TO GROW MORE OF THE 1509 VARIETY