Malwa farmers get excellent yield after adopting new wheat-planting technique
MOGA: Wi t h the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) recommending bed planting, a system of cultivation of wheat, many progressive farmers of the Malwa region have got excellent yield recently after adopting the new technique.
Progressive farmer Balwinder Singh of Rauke Kalan village in the district has already proved that bed plantation can be more rewarding than traditional farming. Interestingly, many farmers have saved groundwater and earned extra money by adopting bed method for wheat in the region.
Claiming that the expected wheat yield from his fields this year is more than 62 quintals per acre as compared to 50 to 52 quintals per acre from the traditional method, Balwinder Singh said he was all set to cultivate moong and basmati in a similar way and would be setting an example for others by conserving natural resources.
Chief agriculture officer Darshan Singh Sandhu said it was the need of the hour to overcome the stagnation in the agriculture sector, besides improving the economic lot of rural masses by making agriculture remunerative and economically viable. “Optimal use of natural resources should be done for long-term sustainability of agriculture as well as to improve the economy of the farmers and to save groundwater level and soil health. The experts of our department are making farmers aware by demonstrating new technology at various places,” said Sandhu.
The demonstration plot of wheat sown on beds with a bed planter yielded 62 quintals of wheat grain per hectare in the field of Balwinder Singh as compared to the 50-52 quintal yield got from the flat sown method.
While inspecting the mentha crop after harvesting of the wheat crop, Dr Jaswinder Singh Brar, an agriculture development officer (ADO), said mentha is grown as intercrop within wheat. “Farmers can get extra income from additional mentha crop sown in mid January between the beds in wheat crop. By adopting bed-sown method, about 35-40% irrigation water is also saved. Bed planting helps use the chemical fertiliser better as the plant roots are concentrated more and fertiliser doses applied within the beds,” said the ADO.
Brar said the weed emergence on the beds was less in the bed- planted wheat. He added, “Bed planting also facilitates the farmers to apply irrigation to the crop within the furrows between two beds. Mostly farmers hesitate to irrigate the crop in mid-March to avoid water-logging, but in bedplanting system, a farmer can irrigate the crop without any fear of water- logging of the crop.”
Former agriculture minister Tota Singh said the rice-wheat system provided good returns to the farmers as compared to other crops but had created a problem of depletion of groundwater, mainly in central Punjab. “The Punjab government will approach the Centre for raising a demand of Rs 5,000 crore for crop diversification programme in the state to shift the majority of cultivable area from paddy to cash-rich crops like maize, oilseeds, legume crops, fruits and vegetables. Farmers should adopt new technologies as recommended by agriculture experts for a better yield,” he added.