Punjab’s early paddy sowing decision a step towards ecological disaster: Experts

The agricultural experts have condemned the Punjab government’s move to advance the date of paddy transplantation from June 1 to appease the peasantry, as a step towards ecological disaster.

Although a formal notification announcing the schedule for sowing kharif crop is awaited, experts said this will undo gains made post the enactment of the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, in 2009 that mandates late sowing of paddy to conserve groundwater.

According to former PAU vice-chancellor BS Dhillon, the government decision will push Punjab back into the path of ecological disaster which the state has been trying to avert for the past many years.

“By shifting back to June 1 for the start of the cultivation schedule, the efforts put in since 2009 to conserve subsoil water will go to waste,” he added.

State on brink of ecological crisis

Punjab is facing an acute water crisis due to depleting groundwater levels with an annual dip being as much as one metre.

There are 14.5 lakh irrigation tubewells in the state and in the peak summer season, the crop entirely depends on them amid the lack of rainfall in pre-monsoon season. The delay in transplantation was advocated so that the crop gets necessary water support during the monsoon, which onsets in Punjab on July 1. In peak June summers evaporation is also high leading to higher water requirement for the crop at least 10-15% more.

The National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, had also raised concerns over depleting the water table and said if the depletion continues at the same pace, the state will become a ‘desert’.

Despite this deepening crisis, paddy on average is sown over 30 lakh hectares (73.5 lakh acres) in the state as it is seen as a fixed-income crop covered under the minimum support price and assured procurement. In 2024, the MSP per quintal was ₹2,320 per quintal.

Chief minister Bhagwant Mann had justified the proposal terming it beneficial for the farmers so that the ‘best quality crop reaches mandis and is readily procured.’

On March 23 after paying tributes at Bhagat Singh’s memorial Mann announced that paddy transplantation will begin from June 1, justifying that early sowing means early harvest and no moisture as in case of late cultivation.

“The crop with higher moisture is rejected at time procurement. We do not want farmers to suffer on that account,” he said, adding that there are best short-duration paddy seed varieties available which would be supplied to the farmers while hybrid seeds would not be allowed. CM had also announced that canals are running full and it will supplement the irrigation needs, with less dependence on tubewells.

Since the announcement, the agri experts are up in arms and are trying to build pressure on the government to roll back the announcement. It is learnt that behind-the-scenes discussions are on at the government level.

The government announcement came despite the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana had sent an advisory to the state government on March 10, suggesting to begin transplanting in districts of south-west Punjab Muktsar, Faridkot, Mansa, Bathinda, Ferozepur, and Fazilka from June 20, followed by Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Rupnagar, SAS Nagar, and Fatehgarh Sahib districts from June 23 and Hoshiarpur, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, SBS Nagar, Ludhiana, Malerkotla, Moga, Patiala, Sangrur and Barnala from June 26.

The advisory is sent every year ahead of kharif sowing and states that seeds for nurseries be sown from May 20 and cultivation of paddy by direct seeding (DSR method) should start from June 1.

According to an eminent plant breeder with expertise in paddy, GS Khush the decision to advance paddy cultivation should not be brought into practice as “it will be suicidal for Punjab.”

Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian justified the move and said: “We do not want farmers to suffer after the harvest. During the paddy procurement of 2024, farmers suffered due to moisture of up to 22% in the crop higher than permissible limits,” he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), since coming to power in March 2022, started the practice of staggering the beginning of the paddy transplantation, which generally used to start on June 13, keeping in view the needs and seasons impacting the three belts of the state – Doaba, Majha and Malwa.

According to retired secretary agriculture Kahan Singh Pannu, who was behind the 2009 Act, the state government should act as a saviour of Punjab by protecting and preserving its scarce and precious resource of groundwater.

“If conservation of natural resources goes wrong, nothing else will go right,” he said quoting MS Swaminathan.

“The central groundwater board has set a deadline of 2039 when all aquifers under Punjab will go dry in case the rate of fall of subsoil water continues at the same pace,” he warned.

Re-emergence of PUSA-44 variety

With the announcement of early sowing, farmers in the state are preferring long-duration water-guzzling PUSA44 which gives the highest rice outturn ratio (OTR) against the short-duration varieties. However, it produces higher crop residue about 15-20% more raising hackles of experts who warned that it might lead to a spurt in farm fires.

Though Punjab has banned the variety which has been discontinued by its producer Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), the farmers are purchasing the seeds from Haryana and Rajasthan.

“The long duration variety of 150 days is suffering varietal fatigue and needs 20% more water for irrigation,” Khush said.

“Even if it gives 68-70 kilograms of rice from a quintal of paddy, the variety should not be cultivated, as it leads to faster depletion of groundwater,” he added.

Food Corporation of India (FCI), which procures paddy for public distribution, takes 66 kilograms of rice from the millers for every 100 kgs of paddy.

“Bringing back PUSA-44 into cultivation will eventually lead to an increase in area under the variety, and it will be disastrous,” Khush added. Punjab rice millers’ association head Tarsem Saini accepted that PUSA-44 gives a higher OTR, but said they have not asked farmers to grow the variety. “We are against hybrid varieties, which the government has announced to ban,” he said.

Farm body Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta-Ughrahan) has welcomed the move. “A small demand has been accepted but we are seeking the government’s action on bigger demands such as MSP on all crops and assured procurement and waiver of entire debt on farmers,” said Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, general secretary of the farm body.

Sukhwinder Singh, a farmer from Samrala, said that he will cultivate PUSA-44 as it gives a higher yield, and grain is also sturdy. “More than the concerns for the environment, farmers want higher yield to increase their earning”.