Fearing floods, Patiala farmers sow extra paddy seeds

Fearful of the last year’s scenario wherein floods had damaged the paddy plantation at the growing stage, farmers of Patiala have started taking precautions by sowing second round of paddy seeds to grow extra saplings so that these may be used in case floods inflicts any damage on their main fields this year.

The paddy transplantation is nearing completion. The move to sow extra seeds in raised fields is aimed at advancing the time window of growing them into paddy saplings.

Last year, farmers had to struggle a lot to immediately arrange paddy saplings for re-transplantation after their paddy fields were destroyed due to floods. Notably, paddy seeds are first sown in a field to grow it into saplings. This process takes 3-4 weeks. Thereafter, these saplings are transplanted into fields.

As per agriculture experts, paddy transplantation should be completed by mid July for higher yield. A farmer, Gurpreet Singh of Balbera village, said, “I have already transplanted paddy in my main fields. But I have again sown paddy seeds for extra saplings keeping in mind the flood threat. Last year, we had to bring paddy saplings from other districts.”

Another farmer, Ishwar Singh, of Sassi Bamna village, who too has sown extra paddy seeds, said, “After floods destroyed my fields last year, we had to spend nearly ₹2,000 as extra labour cost to get paddy saplings transported from far flung areas. We are scared that the floods might destroy our fields so we are taking extra precautions to save crucial time and money.”

Another progressive farmer, Pargat Singh, of Balbera village, who has lent his land to farmers to sow paddy seeds in his elevated fields, said, “I had a few acres of land which is 3-4 feet above the level of neighbouring fields. A few farmers approached me to sow paddy seeds. This might alleviate their losses as these saplings can immediately be grown after the floods and will save their crucial time and ensure paddy yield.”

Farmers are mostly using the short duration paddy variety (PR-126) so that the crop matures at the usual harvesting time and doesn’t affect the beginning of wheat cultivation later. The farmers, while talking to HT, said, “This variety takes only 120 days to mature and will give enough time to be sown until July.”