The electricity–water–agriculture nexus in the state of Punjab has long confined the farmers, power utilities and government in an inefficient equilibrium. To combat this issue, the Government of Punjab (GoP) on June 14, 2018, launched the Paani Bachao, Paisa Kamao (PBPK) scheme {Direct Benefit Transfer for Electricity (DBTE) to agriculture} on a pilot basis on six feeders in three districts—Fatehgarh Sahib, Hoshiarpur, and Jalandhar. The PBPK scheme is based on the premise that by incentivizing farmers to use electricity effectively, the extensive extraction of groundwater can be reduced, thereby saving both water as well as electricity.In Punjab, paddy crop is grown in 76.62 lakh acres of land with total production of 135 million tonnes with an average yield of 26.07 quintals per acre. With almost 15 lakh tubewell connections in the entire state, approximately 73 per cent of the area in the state is irrigated through the tubewells. Farmers cultivate high- yielding, long-duration paddy varieties that consume more water, thus leading to overexploitation of groundwater. Therefore, in order to minimize the groundwater depletion, it is essential for farmers to adopt efficient agronomic interventions for reduction in water withdrawal.
Apart from paddy cultivation leading to groundwater depletion, Punjab also experiences another environmental issue during the Rabi agriculture season. Post-paddy harvesting, crop residue burning is a major problem in Punjab. The state produces about 20 million tonnes of paddy straw, of which around 81 per cent is burnt in the fields to make way for the next crop. Biomass burning is a major source of gaseous pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxides, and hydrocarbons in the troposphere. Therefore, paddy residue burning extensively affects the environment as well as farmers’ health. In addition to this, burning of crop residue also damages the microorganisms present in the upper layer of the soil. Due to the loss of ‘friendly’ pests, the wrath of ‘enemy’ pests increases and as a result, crops become more prone to disease. It also causes partial (phosphorus and potassium) and complete loss of nutrients (nitrogen and sulphur) present in these crop residues.
To combat these issues in both Kharif and Rabi seasons, an important component during pilot implementation of PBPK scheme was promoting efficient agronomic interventions in farmers’ current agricultural practices. In this light, farmers were sensitized on the issues of better agricultural practices that not only conserved water, but also caused no or least yield penalty. Farmers were exposed to various demo-farm interventions during their exposure visits and interaction with the agricultural experts. Post these sessions, some farmers volunteered to adopt the feasible and cost-effective agronomic interventions amongst the practices explained to them.
Under the project, 15 demonstration farms were set up wherein farmers adopted efficient agronomic practices. These practices were crop specific and hence different in both Kharif and Rabi seasons.
Paddy-specific practices in Kharif season
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Wheat-specific practices in Rabi season
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Short-duration paddy varieties
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Rust-resistant variety
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Medium-duration paddy varieties
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Happy seeder
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In Kharif season, the demo farmers replaced their traditional long-duration crop varieties with short- and medium-duration crops. As part of implementation and providing support to the demo farms, recommended crop variety seeds were given to the farmers. These varieties— short- and medium-duration paddy varieties were resistant to almost 7 pathogen types and required less agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides, etc. While most of the farmers in the exposure visit were not very keen on adopting these varieties due to their apprehension of yield penalty, the volunteer demo farmers cultivated these recommended varieties in their demo farms. In contrast to the farmers’ concern of high-yield penalty upon shifting from their traditional paddy varieties, cultivation of short- and medium-duration paddy varieties yielded comparative crop outputs, which also balanced the farmers’ economics in terms of inputs provided and the acquired profits.
In the next cropping season, that is, Rabi, the demo farmers adopted two efficient interventions, viz., cultivation of improvized wheat variety and sowing it using Happy Seeder. Similar to Kharif season, the improvized wheat variety seeds were provided to the demo farmers. The improvized wheat variety was rust resistant as compared to the traditional varieties, which saves pesticides and fertilizers. Less application of these chemicals also leads to healthy crop output. In addition to this, the issue of crop residue burning was also addressed by sowing wheat seeds using a tractor-powered machine known as Happy Seeder that cuts and lifts the paddy straw, sows the wheat seed into the bare soil, and deposits the straw over the sown area as a mulch. Thus, it combines the stubble mulching, seed sowing and fertilizer drilling operations into one machine in a single pass. This not only prevents the air pollution due to crop residue burning, but is also more economical to the farmers as compared to the conventional methods. Therefore, it can be inferred that Happy Seeder is a profitable intervention for wheat sowing.
In conclusion, the agronomic practices adopted in demo farms proved to be feasible for the farmers in terms of ease of application as well as cost effectiveness. Apart from showcasing significant reduction in water withdrawal for their cultivation, it also resolved farmers’ worry of yield penalty and farm economics, which led to shifting of their opinion into adopting the efficient interventions for upcoming cropping seasons.#
Article contributed by Apoorva Bamal, Project Associate, CSR (Project Management Unit), TERI and Niyati Seth, Research Associate, WRPM, TERI.
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