Farmer installs meter to gauge water use via direct paddy sowing

AN AGRICULTURE DEPARTMENT TEAM INSPECTS THE FIELDS OF PROGRESSIVE FARMER WHO HAS SOWN PADDY ON 26 ACRES BY ADOPTING TECHNIQUE

MOGA : A progressive farmer in Moga district’s Talwandi Bhangeria village has installed a meter on the pump irrigating his paddy fields to measure water usage through the direct seeding of rice (DSR) technique.

Also, he has installed another meter to measure electricity consumed to pump water into the fields.

A team led by state agriculture director Sutantar Kumar Airi recently inspected the fields of Harmanjeet Singh who has adopted the technique to sow paddy on 26 acres with a view to saving water.

Plant protection officer Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, who accompanied the team, said, “With the help of these meters, we will compare water usage after two months. This will give us the idea about the exact amount of water and electricity the farmer would save by using the new technique.”

Harmanjeet told the visiting team that he was practisng the technique for the past eight years and had saved 25-30% water as well as electricity.

Airi commended the farmer for his initiative and appealed to farmers to do away with the conventional technique and sow paddy directly to save water.

“There are around 15 lakh tubwells in the state and their extensive use for irrigation has decreased the groundwater level drastically. Of 138 blocks, 110 are overexploited. In 1984, only 64 blocks were overexploited,” he said. Four of five blocks in the Moga district have already been declared ‘dark zone’ due to overexploitation of groundwater.

Airi said the paddy is expected to be sown on around 27 lakh hectares, including 7 lakh hectares under basmati variety, in the state this season. “So far, 70% of sowing of paddy is over. The crop was sown on 4.5 lakh hectares with the DSR technique,” he added.

Brar said the paddy fields with direct sowing method require irrigation once a week while those with traditional methods require irrigation twice a week. Some studies claim that directly seeding also reduces methane emissions and slows down climate change, he added.