The agriculture department’s prediction of a bumper paddy crop in Punjab this Kharif season last week has set alarm bells ringing for the state’s food and civil department, which is grappling with a paucity of storage space.
Meanwhile, agricultural experts and scientists have advocated reducing the area under rice cultivation amid concerns over the falling water table. There are 14 lakh tubewells in Punjab which have pushed 117 blocks out of 165 into a dark zone, meaning water extraction exceeds recharge, leading to a fall in the water level by over one metre annually, according to government data.
The official, requesting anonymity, said the department is finding it difficult to move out the rice, as states that historically consumed rice grown in Punjab have started producing the grain in substantial quantities. “According to me, the politically driven decisions such as giving free power to agricultural tubewells have proved a bane for the state. It should be stopped,” he said.
GS Khush, a California-based rice breeder who led the rice research for three decades at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, called for an immediate reduction in the area under rice cultivation in Punjab, saying otherwise, the state will continue to suffer environmental degradation from the falling water table and economic losses due to lack of inadequate storage.
