BY VISHAL GULATI Chandigarh, June 7 : To cope with the problem of labour scarcity amid Covid-19 scare, farmers in Punjab are now enthusiastically switching to direct seeding of rice (DSR) instead of traditional labour-intensive transplantation of paddy this season, agriculture officials said on Sunday. Nearly 25 per cent of the total area under paddy sowing is expected to come under this innovative technology which will help to slash cultivation cost in terms of both labour and water. To promote the technology of DSR and motivate the farmers to adopt it in a big way, the state Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department sanctioned 4,000 DSR machines and 800 paddy transplanting machines to farmers on subsidy ranging from 40 to 50 per cent, an official told IANS. Agriculture Secretary K.S. Pannu said earlier there was a target to bring around five lakh hectares under DSR technique this year. But given the labour shortage and keen interest shown by farmers to adopt the advance technology, now six-seven lakh hectares of area is expected to come under this technology, which is roughly 25 per cent of paddy grown in the state. He said the DSR technique would be instrumental in saving about 30 per cent of water besides cutting the cost of paddy cultivation by nearly Rs 6,000 per acre. The Secretary said as per reports and research by experts of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) in Ludhiana, the yield of paddy from DSR is on par with paddy crop grown by conventional technique of transplanting. Pannu said the paddy transplantation is the only farm operation which is labour intensive and due to shortage of labour this year caused by Covid-19 pandemic, the Agriculture Department had advised the farmers to sow the paddy crop by DSR as per the recommendations made by PAU recently. The department has been guiding the farmers in the fields about the best ways to undertake the new technology. He also appealed to the farmers that the most critical element in new technology is the control of weeds and as such farmers must be careful that prior to undertaking DSR, they must procure weedicide and spray it within 24 hours of sowing the crop. Notably, the farmers from across the state would cultivate paddy on an area of 27 lakh hectares which includes seven lakh hectares under high quality Basmati variety of rice. In view of labour shortage, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has announced advancement in the paddy nursery sowing and transplantation dates by 10 days. Now, the transplantation will commence on June 10. Earlier, the state was delaying transplantation to reduce pressure on underground water. Sukhjinder Singh Gill, a prominent paddy grower on the outskirts of Ropar town, said there was acute shortage of labour this time. "Nearly 90 per cent of the labourers are seasonal migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. A large number of them have returned to their hometowns after the wheat harvesting," he said. "With abnormal hike in labour charges by local workers, we have decided to go for mechanized paddy transplantation," he said. According to Gill, the local labourers this season have been demanding Rs 4,500-5,000 per acre of paddy against Rs 2,500 per acre in 2019. Punjab grows paddy in 23 lakh hectares with six lakh hectares dedicated only for Basmati rice farming. Owing to acute shortage of labour due to the lockdown in the state, Agriculture Secretary Pannu told IANS this year the area under less labour-intensive cotton cultivation is expected to increase up to 5 lakh hectares from last year's 3.9 lakh hectares. Farmer Rajvinder Singh from Mansa district said, "I have 20-acre land. For the last two decades, we were opting for paddy in the kharif season. This time, fearing delay in paddy transplantation due to labour crisis, we have sown largely cotton along with maize in some portion." The Bharti Kisan Union (Lakhowal) group arranged transportation of at least 40 farm labourers who came from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar on Friday. They have been kept in home quarantine in tubewell rooms at farmhouses in Barnala town. After their Covid test reports this week, they would resume their work in the fields. Fifty per cent cost of their travel cost was borne by the migrants, and the rest by the farmers. Another batch of migrant workers returned to the state on Saturday from Kishanganj and adjoining areas of Bihar. They were accorded welcome by Industries Minister Sunder Sham Arora in Hoshiarpur town. "They all are strong pillars of our economic stability and have always contributed towards the progress of Punjab, which is their own state as they live here. On their return we are ensuring proper medical check-up for them," he said. Punjab wants farmers to take to other varieties of paddy and crops to break the wheat-paddy cycle which followed the Green Revolution in the state since the 1960s. Among the things the government and experts are suggesting is that farmers could grow the Basmati variety that commands handsome returns on its export. Some areas of Punjab, like the Mukerian and Ferozepur belts, do grow Basmati. But most farmers end up growing common paddy, called 'jhona', as the input cost is less. Punjab, with only 1.54 per cent of India's geographical area, produces around 20 per cent of wheat, 10 per cent of rice and 10 per cent of cotton production of the country. The state contributes over 50 per cent food grains to the national kitty alone. (Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in) /IANS