Rice cultivation in Punjab, which thrived in the past due to the easy availability of water resources and free supply of electricity to farmers, is under considerable strain now. Vikas Vasudeva examines how overexploitation has made groundwater not only scarce but also increasingly alkaline.
Gurmeet Singh, 60, a tall land-owning farmer in Bhattiwal Khurd village, which is located in Punjab’s Sangrur district, has yet again planted the water-guzzling paddy crop this summer (kharif) as he is sceptical of any other crop fetching him a remunerative price.
Standing on the edge of the Ghaggar branch canal, which flows barely a few metres away from his field, Gurmeet reveals that hardly anyone in the village irrigates his/her field with canal water. That is because motor-operated tube wells, with their powerful submersible pumps, have become an easy and preferred choice for most of the households to extract groundwater, he says.
Punjab’s policy of providing free electricity to farmers, in place since 1997, along with the Central government’s favourable attitude towards paddy cultivation, are the key factors that have motivated farmers like Gurmeet to persist with paddy, despite the grave groundwater crisis faced by the State.
Source: August 17, 2019, The Hindu