Plan to save water gets derailed amid hot weather in Punjab
Experts say water usage will increase by 10-20% as paddy sowing in puddled fields began on Tuesday, hopes hinging on a good rain spell
CHANDIGARH : High temperatures hovering between 42-46 degrees Celsius has put paid to plans of saving the subsoil water in Punjab during the ongoing paddy sowing season, causing concern among agricultural experts and environmentalists, who are hoping for a good rainfall spell to ease the situation.
Paddy sowing by conventional method of transplanting saplings in puddled fields began from Tuesday and owing to the severe heat wave, the water usage will increase by 10 to 20%, say the experts in Punjab agricultural university (PAU).
The state agriculture department, the PAU and Punjab state power corporation limited (PSPCL) have hinged their hopes on a rainfall spell, predicted by the state meteorology department for three to four days from Thursday, for easy start to the paddy transplantation.
“In such weather conditions, the evaporation and transpiration is maximum which leads to increase in water requirement. It is worrying not for the crop but for subsoil water,” said Makhan Singh Bhullar, head of agronomy department, PAU.
Historically, whenever there is a drought in the country, Punjab had bumper paddy crops, he added.
About 75% of water for irrigation in the state is fed by underground water through 14.5 lakh
agriculture tube wells and the rest is by canals. Average yearly fall of subsoil water in Punjab is more than one meter and out of 138 blocks in the state, 109 are in the category of being “over-exploited”, which means usage is more than the recharge.
Gurvinder Singh, director, agriculture, said, “it is a real test for paddy sowing this season. There is a limited power available, subsoil water is also in constraint and canals also can feed a portion of paddy area. Diesel also is very costly so unlike the past seasons, when farmers used to run tube well on diesel when power was not available, this time the high fuel prices pose a stiff challenge for the farmers.,”
“If we don’t get good rainfall in the present week, then we are heading for a big problem. The fight is against the nature,” he added.
A total of 29 lakh hectares (71 lakh acres) is expected under the paddy cultivation in the state, out of which 6 lakh tonnes is expected for the cultivation of premium aromatic basmati rice.
To conserve subsoil water, the state agriculture department in May had planned to bring 12 lakh hectares under the nonconventional method of directed seeded rice (DSR), but it has not received the expected response, as only 80,000 hectares could be sown under this technique.
The state department and PAU attribute low response to adopting the DSR technique to the lack of availability of water for irrigation and power supply to farmers between during May 20 and 31, the schedule fixed by the government to sow paddy under this method.
“Due to low response to DSR, the entire burden will be on nonconventional method and it would add to load on the power system when farmers will depend on the conventional method,” said an officer in agriculture department.
With the non-conventional method, growing a kilogram of rice consumes 3,367 litres of water. Due to heat wave, the dependence on water usage is more as on the opening day of paddy sowing on Tuesday, the day’s demand crossed 12,000 MW and it is expected to touch 15,000 MW.