Punjab farmers opt for paddy over cotton this kharif season

Chandigarh, Aug 17 (PTI) Farmers of Punjab, where amassive whitefly attack occurred last year, have opted forpaddy this year and about 30.10-lakh hectare land has beensown during the ongoing kharif season. Decline in cotton acreage because of fear of whitefly pestand lesser area under other crops against targeted area arebeing attributed to increase in acreage in paddy. With completion of the crop sowing, area under paddy hasgrown to 30.10 lakh hectares in current kharif season asagainst 29.75 lakh hectares last season. The target forcurrent kharif season for paddy was set at 27.10 lakhhectares, an official of Punjab Agriculture department said. "…this time is an all-time high acreage in the state.The major reason…has been the reduction in cotton acreageduring current kharif season," he said. Besides, the area under basmati crop has also dipped by 35per cent because of low prices fetched by growers, thusforcing growers to sow traditional varieties of paddy. Areaunder basmati was 4.90 lakh hectares as against 7.63 lakhhectares of acreage. "After facing damage in cotton crop last year because ofwhitefly pest, growers this year brought down acreage undercotton and preferred to sow ordinary and common varieties ofpaddy which is a risk free crop because of assured marketing,"Punjab State Farmers Commission, economist, P S Rangi saidtoday. "Growers even shifted area under basmati to commonvarieties after they failed to fetch remunerative returns fromaromatic varieties. These factors primarily led to increase inarea under paddy," he said. State government had launched crop diversificationprogramme which has been pushing growers to shift area underpaddy to other crops like cotton, maize, basmati, sugarcane,pulses. As far as other crops are concerned, area under maizestood at 1.45 lakh hectares as against the target of 2 lakhhectares. Similarly, sugarcane area was recorded at 96,000hectares. In neighbouring state Haryana, area under paddy was12.46 lakh hectares in current kharif season as against 12.24lakh hectares of area last year. In 2014-15, area under paddywas 12.87 lakh hectares. Like in Punjab, area under cotton also went down inHaryana to 5.23 lakh hectares as against acreage of 5.83 lakhhectares last year. The state has set a target of 6.20 lakhhectares of area under fiber. However, Bajra crop has seen upswing in acreage to 4.85lakh hectares as against 3.80 lakh hectares last year. Butarea under guar crop dipped to 2.61 lakh hectares incomparison to 3.67 lakh hectares last season in Haryana. PTICHSABI