Reducing area under paddy crop in Punjab has been a big issue for every successive government for over past two decades as water table is depleting 90 cm every year.
Reducing area under paddy crop in Punjab has been a big issue for every successive government for over past two decades as water table is depleting 90 cm every year.
In the ongoing Indian Science Congress, the agricultural scientists questioned the policies, which are responsible for growing rice on 3 million hectares in Punjab, besides the reason of providing water subsidy on paddy, a highly water-intensive crop resulting in depleting water table.
They questioned the government over potato is being thrown on roads, and onions being sold at Rs 2 per kg in wholesale market and Rs 20 per kg in retail.
“I have been hearing about diversification of crop in Punjab for the past two decades, but just the opposite has happened when the area under rice has increased from 21 lakh hectares in 2001 to over 30 lakh hectares in 2017-18,” said senior scientists Dr Rajbir Singh, Agriculture Technology Application Research Institute, under Government of India. He adding that rice is sustainable crop in Punjab and cannot be replaced by any other, but definitely the area under it can be reduced if the government helps farmers by providing better price for other crops.
He was speaking at a session on Rice Production System in India. H S Sidhu, a senior Research Engineer with Borlaug Institute of South Asia centre at Ladhowal in Ludhiana, said that rice and wheat have no replacement and are the most sustainable crops in Punjab. “But, we need to change farm practices for it so that our land and water can be protected from degradation, for which government support is highly essential.”
Sujay Rakshit, Director of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Institute of Indian Institute of Maize Research (ICAR, IIMR), Ludhiana, said that when the government is providing free power to irrigate rice and procuring at a minimum support price, why farmers will go for other crops, which do not have any support price. “Sometimes farmers face huge market problem. It is up to the government to make such policies so that other crops can get fair price.”
Concluding the session, senior scientist of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Darshan Singh Barar said the government needs to give better price for every crop and have processing units like for making chips from potato and ketchup from tomato.
Prior to this Japanese scientist Kazuyuki Inubushi, Chiba University, Japan, informed the session that how they are working on reducing water usage in rice cultivation by adopting various techniques. Engineer Sasi Elumali suggested ways to manage paddy stubble.
In the ongoing Indian Science Congress, the agricultural scientists questioned the policies, which are responsible for growing rice on 3 million hectares in Punjab, besides the reason of providing water subsidy on paddy, a highly water-intensive crop resulting in depleting water table.
They questioned the government over potato is being thrown on roads, and onions being sold at Rs 2 per kg in wholesale market and Rs 20 per kg in retail.
“I have been hearing about diversification of crop in Punjab for the past two decades, but just the opposite has happened when the area under rice has increased from 21 lakh hectares in 2001 to over 30 lakh hectares in 2017-18,” said senior scientists Dr Rajbir Singh, Agriculture Technology Application Research Institute, under Government of India. He adding that rice is sustainable crop in Punjab and cannot be replaced by any other, but definitely the area under it can be reduced if the government helps farmers by providing better price for other crops.
He was speaking at a session on Rice Production System in India. H S Sidhu, a senior Research Engineer with Borlaug Institute of South Asia centre at Ladhowal in Ludhiana, said that rice and wheat have no replacement and are the most sustainable crops in Punjab. “But, we need to change farm practices for it so that our land and water can be protected from degradation, for which government support is highly essential.”
Sujay Rakshit, Director of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Institute of Indian Institute of Maize Research (ICAR, IIMR), Ludhiana, said that when the government is providing free power to irrigate rice and procuring at a minimum support price, why farmers will go for other crops, which do not have any support price. “Sometimes farmers face huge market problem. It is up to the government to make such policies so that other crops can get fair price.”
Concluding the session, senior scientist of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Darshan Singh Barar said the government needs to give better price for every crop and have processing units like for making chips from potato and ketchup from tomato.
Prior to this Japanese scientist Kazuyuki Inubushi, Chiba University, Japan, informed the session that how they are working on reducing water usage in rice cultivation by adopting various techniques. Engineer Sasi Elumali suggested ways to manage paddy stubble.