Punjab: Jump in PUSA-44 acreage can lead to spike in farm fires, warn experts
The variety needs more irrigation cycles, leading to a consumption of 20% more groundwater; it produces 20-25% more residue and if burnt after the harvest in the October-November months, it will produce a higher quantity of smoke
With the Punjab government advancing the paddy transplantation date from June 1 onwards, the farmers are seeking to plant the long-duration and water-guzzling PUSA-44 variety, forcing experts to flag concerns over a depleting water table and an increase in crop residue which in turn can lead to a spike in farm fires.
Experts said there will be an adverse impact on the ecology as the variety will need more irrigation cycles leading to a consumption of 20% more groundwater and the crop also produces 20-25% more residue and if burnt after the harvest in the October-November months will produce a higher quantity of smoke.
“It is long duration variety with seed to seed life cycle of 160 days, and if sown in June it will be ready for harvest in November month, leaving very short time for preparing fields for rabi sowing,” said an expert apprehending that farmers will not be left with no option but to burn the crop residue.
The area under cultivation of the variety in 2024 was 1.5 lakh hectares out of a total of 31.94 lakh hectares under the crop and this season it is expected to increase manifold, experts said.
Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution in the National Capital Region in October and November. As the window for sowing rabi crop wheat is very short after the paddy harvest, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly get rid of crop residue.
In 2024, the state government was able to bring down the number of paddy stubble fires to 37,602, a drop of 34% from the number of fire cases in 2023.
The state government has already banned the variety which was discontinued by its producer Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), an arm of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), for suffering from varietal fatigue and being prone to pests. However, the farmers are managing to procure seeds from states like Haryana and Rajasthan.
“Farmers are after PUSA-44 variety seed which are selling at a premium price of ₹150 per kg,” said Sukhwinder Singh, a farmer from Samrala.
Sowing paddy in one acre requires 4 to 6 kg of seed in the case of PUSA-44 while other varieties’ seeds sell at ₹50 per kg, the farmer added.
The cultivators prefer the long-duration variety PUSA-44 as it has a high rice outturn ratio (OTR) of up to 72%, against the norms of 66% set by the Food Corporation of India. A prominent seed dealer in Mohali on being contacted offered delivery of PUSA-44 seeds from Ambala.
The move is seen as placating the farmers and rice millers, offering them a chance to earn high rice yields. The farm bodies active in Sangrur, Barnala, Mansa and Bathinda areas have already welcomed the move to advance the transplantation date and have urged the government to allow the cultivation of the PUSA-44 variety to help farmers earn better remuneration.
“We are against paddy cultivation it is not a native crop. It doesn’t matter PUSA-44 or any other variety,” said BKU (Ekta-Ughrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan, adding that the government is behind the cultivation of the variety.
“The government can stop the cultivation it if it has a strong will,” he added.
Punjab Agricultural University vice-chancellor SS Gosal said farmers in Sangrur, Barnala, Mansa and Bathinda prefer the PUSA-44 variety. “The variety was launched in 1995 and we have been opposing it since as it is not an ideal variety,” Gosal said, hoping that despite the start of paddy transplant on June 1, the majority of farmers will transplant the saplings after June 20.
As per the government’s schedule sowing in Zone 1, including Faridkot, Ferozepur, Fazilka, Muktsar and Bathinda districts will begin from June 1; sowing in Zone 2 districts Gurdaspur, Pathankot, Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Rupnagar, Mohali, Fatehgarh Sahib and Hoshiarpur will start from June 5. While Zone 3 districts Ludhiana, Malerkotla, Mansa, Moga, Barnala, Patiala, Sangrur, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, and Nawanshahr will start sowing on June 5.
Director agriculture Jaswant Singh said that the government will not allow the sowing of PUSA-44 varieties as all arrangements have been made to check the sale of the seed of the banned variety.
A group of agricultural experts have asked the government to rethink its decision and instead follow the recommendations made by the PAU for starting cultivation from June 20. The experts include eminent rice breeders GS Khush, Rattan Lal, world food prize laureate, ex-PAU VC BS Dhillion, former secretary agriculture Punjab KS Pannu and former VC of Guru Nanak Dev University Jairup Singh, among others.
State geared up to meet paddy season power demand: Minister
Chandigarh: Power minister Harbhajan Singh ETO on Wednesday said that Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is fully prepared to meet the demand and supply of power for the upcoming paddy season.
After a meeting with PSPCL CMD Ajoy Sinha and others, Harbhajan Singh said that about 17,000 MW of power would be required during the paddy season for which PSPCL had made advance arrangements. Besides this, uninterrupted supply of power will also be ensured for domestic consumers in the season across the state, he added.
