Bed Plantation of Paddy to save water

[Ashok Kumar]

Water crisis is a universal problem but in Punjab it's generally linked to Paddy cultivation.. As per Governement figures 3 million hectares (of 4.15 million hectares) is under paddy in Punjab... For more than 2 decades the area under paddy used to be around 2.8 MH.. After the epidemic of white fly and uncertainty of Basmati rates, considerable area got converted to paddy from these crops.. 

Recently we organised farm field schools in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts of Punjab on Potato crop and were surprised to know that many of the potato farmers have also turned to paddy... As per our estimate the are under paddy must have been in excess of 3.4 MH (almost 82%). Similar may have happend with other crops suggested as alternative to paddy under crop diversification.

This is simply because of assured market of Paddy. Floods this year may move more farmers for Paddy... 

Starting from some officers of department of agriculture punajb, like Dr. Amrik Singh and Dr. Sarbjit Singh Kandhari some NGOs and few farmers tried their hand on SRI to have good yield with reduced input costs and savings in irrigation water with mixed but encouraging results... 

In the midst, Dr. Daler Singh -an agriculture technocrat who have been experimenting and proving another sustainable technique of paddy cultivation which has the potential of saving 30-40% water and enhanced yields.. In his method, the nursery is transpalanted on raised beds without any puddling.. The technique is being now tried by hundreds of farmers throughout Punjab this year. Some of the media reports are attached herewith and his YouTube link is below

https://youtu.be/MtslcmmafW4

His contact number is +919915596504

Like SRI, his technique has also been outrightly rejected by PAU, so far.....