15% rise in area under DSR technique this time
Paddy over 2 lakh acres has already been sown using the DSR system, which was 1.72 lakh acres in the whole kharif season last year.
Chandigarh:
Amid the Punjab government’s efforts to promote the direct seeded rice (DSR), the state has witnessed a 15 per cent increase in the area on which paddy has been sown using this technique as compared to last year. The ongoing paddy sowing season is midway. Over 2 lakh acres of the area has already been sown using the DSR system, which was 1.72 lakh acres in the whole kharif season last year.
Punjab agriculture and farmers welfare minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, while terming it a great success, hoped to accomplish 5 lakh acres under the DSR this season, as targeted by the agriculture department.
He further said that chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann-led Punjab government has been providing ₹1,500 as financial assistance to encourage the farmers to adopt DSR technique.
The department has allocated ₹50 crore to provide to farmers opting this technique during 2024-25 whereas it was ₹20.33 crore last fiscal when 17,116 farmers had got the assistance, the minister informed while urging the farmers to join hands with the state government to save the groundwater.
He said farmers, who have opted for the DSR, need to register on the government portal (agrimachinerypb.com) till July 15, 2024 to get assistance.
Under the DSR, rice seeds are directly planted in the fields instead of the traditional method of growing seedlings in nurseries and then transplanting them into the fields.
