Bathinda cotton farmers adopt novel bed plantation technique
BATHINDA: Progressive cotton farmers in Bathinda district have taken to unconventional narrow raised bed technique. According to information, about 3,500 hectares in the district is under this system of cotton cultivation that is considered useful in weed control, saving water and reducing crop lodging.
The state agriculture department has recognised the novel initiative taken by the farmers. Officials are following it minutely with a plan to promote the cost-efficient technique from the next year in the cotton-sowing area the already semi-arid districts of south Malwa.
Farmers say the water-efficient technology of bed plantation supports the cash crop as power supply remains erratic to run tubewells to irrigate cotton fields when the period coincides with the paddy cultivation.
Ramgarh Bhunder village, about 25km from district headquarters, is considered as a leader in adopting bed cropping technique.
Gurpreet Singh, 39, said he has been sowing cotton on raised beds since 2015 and the almost entire village has switched over to this technique. This year, he has sown cotton on five acres with bed plantation.
“Against the average use of three packets of seeds per acre, I sowed only two. Most of us find hand sowing as preferred practice. Groundwater in the area is brackish and with limited access to canal water, but the average per acre production of cotton is 14 quintal that is higher than the conventional level cropping fields,” he said.
For Jagtar Singh of Mehma Sarja village, bed plantation shows negligible plant mortality. “In the last four years, I have not experienced serious lodging as excess rainwater drains out easily. The pattern can be instrumental in the conservation of groundwater that is depleting at the alarming levels,” he said.
According to the state agriculture secretary Kahan Singh Pannu, after DSR (direct seeding of rice), bed plantation adoption by farmers can be a gamechanger for the cotton-growing belt. “Inspite of pandemic outbreak, we managed to expedite crop diversification drive and this year, cotton has been sown on 4.9 lakh hectares, an increase of one lakh hectares than last year. The department is working to promote such efficient technologies in other districts as well,” said Pannu.
THE UNCONVENTIONAL SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION IS CONSIDERED USEFUL IN CONTROLLING WEED, SAVING WATER AND REDUCING CROP LODGING