Area under paddy crop reduces in Punjab as farmers opt for alternate crops

To promote crop diversification in Punjab, the area under paddy cultivation has considerably reduced, with nearly 7.5 lakh acres of land shifted from paddy to alternate crops during the kharif season-2019, the state government said in a statement on Sunday.

The area under non-basmati paddy during current kharif season was 57.27 lakh acres as compared to 64.80 lakh acres in 2018.

Lauding the efforts of the agriculture department, Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, who also holds the agriculture portfolio, said this initiative would go a long way in conserving water as paddy is a water guzzling crop.

The chief minister said the government has aimed to shift 7 lakh acres more area from paddy to cotton, maize, basmati and fruits and vegetables with a view to restoring the water balance in the state.

The agriculture department has already shifted 7.5 lakh acres area from paddy to other crops this year. This includes about 3 lakh acres under cotton, 1.27 lakh acres under maize, 2.95 lakh acres under basmati and 17,500 acres under fruits and vegetables, he said in the statement.

Highlighting the major initiatives undertaken by the department in 2019, Viswajit Khanna, Additional Chief Secretary (Development) said, "In addition to crop diversification, the department had also launched a vigorous campaign in Kharif-2019 to motivate farmers to reduce the use of agrochemicals, especially nine agrochemicals that have negative impact on basmati grain quality".

This had brought encouraging results as the chemical residue level in basmati crop was found to be below minimum residue level (MRL), he said.

"Following this initiative, the state farmers had produced high quality basmati crop and got remunerative prices of their produce inspite of weak international sentiment owing to restrictions on exports to Iran, which is a major market for Punjab basmati," Khanna said in the statement.

To ensure judicious use of fertilisers, 24.30 lakh soil health cards have already been issued to the farmers after testing their soil and they were requested to apply need-based fertilisers as per Punjab Agricultural University recommendations, informed K S Pannu, Secretary Agriculture, Punjab.

Giving details of pesticides consumption during kharif-2019, the agriculture secretary said the productivity of crops is crossing all previous records as a result of strict vigil on sale of spurious seeds and agro chemicals.

Pannu further stated that "the total usage of pesticides has registered a decline of 675 metric tonne (technical grade) during the current Kharif season, thereby benefiting the farmers to the tune of Rs 355 crore".

The usage of pesticides was 3,838 MT worth Rs 2,000 crore during kharif-2018, he added.