Punjab govt announces Rs 1,500 per acre aid for direct seeding of rice

The Punjab government will give financial aid of Rs 1,500 per acre to each of the farmers in the state who go in for direct seeding of rice (DSR), Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced on Saturday. He said that farmers were allowed to start the sowing of paddy using the DSR technique 20 May onwards. The government has taken this step to prevent the water level from going down further in the state.

The Chief Minister exhorted the farmers to sow paddy using the DSR technique on as much land as possible. He said that farmers adopting this technique would not only receive financial aid of Rs 1,500 per acre but also be provided necessary help from the Department of Agriculture.

In the DSR technique, fields are drilled with the help of machines and paddy seeds are sown. Insecticides are also sprayed at the same time. In the conventional method, farmers first prepare paddy saplings in the nursery that are later uprooted and transplanted in the fields.

Expressing concern that the water level was going down, the Chief Minister emphasized conserving water. The conventional cultivation of paddy is a water-guzzling activity. The Chief Minister said that this had led to the water level going down drastically. “Most districts are in the red zone as the underground water level is declining rapidly,” he said.

The Chief Minister said that the DSR technique was not only advantageous for the environment but also economical for the farmer. Fields using this technique for sowing paddy will also have a higher yield. Last year, the DSR technique was used on 6 lakh hectares of area out of the total area of 28 lakh hectares on which paddy was sown.

In a meeting held with 24 farmer organizations on April 17, too, the Chief Minister had expressed concern about the fall in water levels. He has asked the officials, too, to inspire the farmers to adopt the DSR technique.