Punjab’s New Crop Trend: Paddy Rises, Cotton Falls

In a significant agricultural shift, Punjab is poised to increase its cultivation of paddy this year, predominantly due to a steep decline in the area under cotton, a major alternative crop, and also as there is no hope to increase the area under Kharif maize too.

The area under cotton has dwindled drastically to a mere less than one lakh hectares this season, which is an all-time low acreage under the crop in its recorded history in the state, plummeting from 1.79 lakh hectares last year. Before last year, the area under cotton had never come down from over 2-lakh hectares. Cotton used to have a huge area in Punjab till the 1980s and 1990s when it witnessed up to 7.58 lakh hectares area. Even in the first decade of this century, its area remained around 6 lakh hectares.

Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) technology

This year, direct sowing of paddy through Direct Seeded Rice (DSR) technology was started after May 15 but the transplantation was allowed from June 11 in six districts of the state and from July 16 to the remaining 17 districts. Till Friday, around 10-lakh hectares under paddy was already transplanted in the state and the paddy transplantation would continue till the first week of July depending upon the varieties. Also, Basmati transplantation has begun, and it may continue till the second week of July.

According to a senior officer in Punjab agriculture department, “Farmers, dissuaded by the comparatively lower yields of Kharif maize compared to paddy, show limited interest in expanding maize cultivation in the past several years. The sowing of Kharif maize is also going on. This reluctance further narrows down the viable alternatives to paddy cultivation in the state without paying heed to the depleting groundwater.”  He also added that, the government gives them a target to increase but they cannot do anything except educate farmers.

If you wish to know organic methods to increase your overall cultivation yield, please call the KhetiGaadi counsellor on 07875114466 or write an email to connect@khetigaadi.com

Basmati rice on the rise

With the diminishing prospects for other Kharif crops, attention now turns to another alternative crop — basmati — an aromatic variety sown after paddy. Basmati is often considered a viable alternative to regular paddy cultivation, though it had a good area (5.96 lakh hectares) under it last year, it is to be seen how much area could be brought under it this year. It gives good returns to farmers, but its rates are highly fluctuating and there is no assured security like paddy’s Minimum Support Price (MSP) to Basmati cultivators.

Cotton vs. Paddy

Meanwhile, the area under cotton plummeted to 1.75 lakh hectares in 2023, sharply declining from 2.48 lakh hectares in 2022, 2.52 lakh hectares in 2021, 2.50 lakh hectares in 2020, and 3.35 lakh hectares in 2019. This continuous decline in cotton cultivation has been observed since 2019. Similarly, over the past five years, the area under maize has decreased from 1.10 lakh hectares to below one lakh hectares. Comparing this with the paddy area, one can observe a continuous increase in paddy cultivation over these years. For instance, the area under paddy increased from 2019 to 2023. It was 31.99 lakh hectares in 2023, including 5.96 lakh hectares under Basmati.

Stay tuned with us on our WhatsApp channel for more real-time updates on various agriculture-related schemes and innovative cultivation methods aimed at supporting our hardworking farmers. For more detailed information, visit our website regularly!