Achieving Crop diversification in Punjab

Why in news?

Recent farmer protests raised questions about the sustainability of Paddy-Wheat cultivation especially in Punjab.

What is the extent of paddy-wheat cultivation in Punjab?

In 2018-19, of the total gross cropped area paddy & wheat cultivation constituted to 84.6%.
This ratio was just 32% in 1960-61 & 47.4% in 1970-71.
This increase is at the expense of other crops.
Wheat replaced chana, masur, mustard and sunflower & cotton, maize, groundnut and sugarcane area got diverted to paddy.
Only vegetables (potato, pea) & fruits (kinnow) registered some acreage expansions which is very meagre.

Why is monoculture a problem?

It increases vulnerability to pest and disease attacks.
Crop and genetic diversity makes crops less sensitive to insects and attacks.
Unlike pulses and legumes, wheat and paddy cannot fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.
Their continuous cultivation leads to depletion of soil nutrients & increases the use of chemical fertilisers & pesticides.

Is Paddy cultivation creating problem in the state?

It is a cool season crop & can only be grown where day temperatures are in the range of 30°C.
Hence it is desirable to cultivate wheat in Punjab.
However paddy (Pusa-44) is not very sensitive to high temperature & but needs higher irrigation.
So the state’s groundwater table depleted to 0.5 meters per annum on an average & is aggravated by state’s policy of supplying free power for irrigation.
Hence paddy can be grown in eastern central & southern India where water is sufficiently available.

What are the steps taken by Punjab to address this problem?

It enacted Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act in 2009, which barred any nursery-sowing and transplanting of paddy before May 15 and June 15.
But this has created another problem.
It has pushed paddy harvesting to October-end leaving a small time to sow wheat (before the November 15 deadline).
So farmers have to burn the stubble after harvesting leading to air pollution in Delhi.

How can this be avoided?

Scientists at the Punjab Agriculture University have done a breed that shortened the duration of paddy varieties.
PR-126 has a mere 123 days duration to mature (13 to 37 days less) and its yields 30 quintals per acre.
In 2012, 39% of Punjab’s non-basmati paddy area was under Pusa-44 & it was 20% this year.
This is mainly because of PR-121 and PR-126 which crossed 71% of total area.
Moreover PR-126 & PR-121 require only 23 &26 irrigations respectively whereas Pusa-44 requires around 31 irrigations.
This will save 3-4 irrigation if farmers adopt direct seeding of paddy when compared to transplanting.

What is the way forward?

Only 10 lakh hectares (lh) area should be allocated to non-basmati paddy which are of shorter-duration varieties.
These should be transplanted after June 20 and harvested well before mid-October.
This gives farmers ample time to handle stubble without burning them.

Water savings can be achieved through metering of electricity and direct seeding of paddy.
The 10 lh less non-basmati area can be diverted to basmati varieties as they consume less water because of transplantation occurs only in July.
Government can provide price incentive support to cotton, maize, groundnut, kharif pulses, chana, mustard & sunflower for crop diversification.

Source: The Indian Express