Amritsar: Workers winnow rice grain after monsoon rains, at a grain market in Amritsar, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2022. (PTI Photo)(PTI09_24_2022_000159B)
| Photo Credit:
–
Punjab government has decided to allow paddy transplanting from June 1 and a notification is expected soon. However, experts view it not as a forward-looking move since the State had started controlling use of groundwater through a law in 2009, restricting farmers’ discretion to select the transplanting period of paddy.
In 2009, the Punjab government, led by SAD-BJP, enacted The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act under which farmers were prohibited from raising paddy nursery before May 10 while the beginning date of transplanting was left open for the government to announce through notification.
“The idea was to bar transplanting before June 15, as paddy raised in a nursery takes 30-35 days to be ready for transplantation. In recent years, the start of transplanting was even delayed until June 25 through notifications. The latest decision will be a significant setback in groundwater conservation,” said a retired official who was associated with the drafting of the water law.
Experts differ
He wondered how farmers could transplant from June 1 unless they started raising paddy in nurseries during April 25-30, which would violate the spirit of the law. However, some experts argued that staggered transplanting could lead to harvesting in different phases, potentially reducing the impact of stubble burning.
Delhi’s winter air pollution, a recurring issue in recent years, is partly attributed to the burning of paddy residues to clear fields for wheat sowing.
However, State’s Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said there is no need to change the law and it will be done through a notification.
Dismissing any possibility of farmers resorting to use of long duration paddy varieties (which yield higher) and use more water, he said the government would supply power to farmers’ field only for three months and that would help check draining out more groundwater.
He said the decision was made because many farmers faced difficulties selling their paddy last October due to moisture levels exceeding the permissible limit. Advancing the transplanting period would help ensure the grain is adequately dry at the time of procurement.
Dividing into zones
According to sources, the government would divide the State into 4-7 zones and fix separate commencement of transplanting date for each region with a gap of 2-3 days. Last year, the Punjab government had divided the State into two zones, allowing transplantation in Muktsar, Faridkot, Fazilka, Ferozepur, Bathinda and Mansa districts from June 11 and in the remaining 17 districts from June 20.
The area under rice in Punjab has been consistently rising every year since 2019-20 as the State has not been able to convince its farmers to diversify. On the other hand, officials at local levels ask farmers to shift to basmati from non-basmati, even though both are rice crops.
In 2019-20, the area under rice was 29.20 lakh hectares (lh) which rose to 29.28 lh the next year, further to 29.69 lh in 2021-22, to 30.98 in 2022-23, to 31.79 lh in 2023-24 and to 32.43 in 2024-25.
Published on April 3, 2025
