PepsiCo to enlarge area under DST cultivation

"We have plans to cover 4,000 acres of land in 2009 across Punjab in which we will like to use our unique technology of direct seeding on paddy including basmati and normal varieties of the crop," PepsiCo General Manager (Agriculture) Susheel Sankhyan told reporters here today.     

The company during this year aims to use direct seeding technology on paddy crop on over 1,000 acres of land in Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.     

"We are aiming to cover 200 acres of land in Punjab and Rajasthan for basmati variety and 400 acres of land in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka for normal paddy variety to implement this technology," he said.     
PepsiCo, last year, used direct seeding technology in Punjab including Sangrur, Patiala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, Kapurthala and Hoshiarpur on 340 acres of land and 60 acres of land in Rajasthan.     

Under this technology, the company claims that farmers could save 30 per cent of water and reduce their production cost by Rs 1,250 to Rs 1,450 per acre compared to traditional paddy cultivation.     

Paddy cultivation is known to be very water intensive. Over a period of time, this has resulted in a decline of the water table in Punjab.