But for farmers in Majha, monsoon failure is no deterrent
AMRITSAR: Farmers in Majha belt, too, are a worried lot, but they haven't lost all hope. An estimated one-lakh hectare area in the district has already been brought under non- basmati and basmati varieties ever since paddy transplantation commenced on June 10.
However, the main cause of worry is to save the paddy crop that has been transplanted. A failed monsoon would mean spending almost double the amount to keep the fields inundated by pumping out water
with generator-run pumps.
MARGINAL EFFECT
If we go by the statistics of the district agriculture department, the dry spell in June has had only a very marginal effect on sowing. An estimated one lakh hectares in the district have already been brought under nonbasmati and basmati varieties ever since paddy transplantation commenced on June 10. Of this 95,000 hectares are under non-basmati varieties and the remaining under the popular 1121 basmati variety, whose sowing began just three days back.
“Sowing of non-basmati varieties is almost complete, just a couple of more acres to go in the next few days. However, there is no delay in basmati as it commences in the month of July,” said district chief agriculture officer Dilbagh Singh Dhanju said to Hindustan Times here on Monday.
“As has been the case in every drought year, the farmers will not delay sowing of paddy. The reasons are quite obvious, as the non-basmati varieties in the district are mainly sown in the vegetable belt of Jandiala, Tarsika, Verka and Majitha and the farmers here sow varieties with a short harvesting period so that they can sow vegetables,” said Dr Dhanju.
The CAO said the area under bastmati and non-basmati varieties this year is expected to be around 1.85 lakh hectares in the district, which was around 1.84 lakh hectares last year. The only worry is that if monsoon fails, the input costs will escalate, Dhanju said.
ERRATIC POWER SUPPLY
Though Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) had promised 8-hour tubewell power supply on normal feeders and 6 hours on overloaded feeders, it has not been able to stick to this schedule.
“We get electricity only for 3 hours, that too with constant breakdowns and this breaks the water supply chain to the fields. To puddle a one-acre plot, we need regular supply and a breakdown means we have to restart the process or use a generator,” said Rattan Singh Randhawa, president, Border Area Farmers Sangharsh Committee.
Local PSPCL officials, when contacted, attributed power tripping to overloading and blamed the farmers for drawing unauthorised supply. “We have upgraded a number of supply feeders and even changed power lines, but the electricity demand at this time of the season is very high and we try our best to meet this,” they maintain.