Amid pandemic, direct seeding of rice helps Punjab farmers

The concept of self-reliant India is growing among farmers of Punjab, one of the country's prominent granaries, with the pruning of farm labour caused by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

Even the farmers are branching out to become tech savvy, paving way for the government to sow the seeds of less water-intensive mechanised technology in the kharif season when the sowing of water guzzling paddy is on.

For nearly a decade, the state has been advocating to put an end to the age-old method of transplanting water-guzzling way the puddle method with the mechanical method of paddy plantation.

With the large migration of labourers to their home states amid the lockdown, agriculture experts believe circumstances have changed the mindset of a large number of farmers to opt the new mechanized method rather than sticking to the traditional way of sowing saplings in puddle fields.

Government estimates this time around 25 per cent of the total area of paddy will be brought through the direct seeding of rice

( With inputs from IANS )