Groundwater Depletion and Role of Direct Seeded Rice in Water Saving: A Move Towards Sustainable Agriculture of Punjab

Presently, out of 20 million tube wells in the country, almost 1.3 million are in Punjab, contributing to fast-paced groundwater extraction and its depletion. Direct seeding of rice has a great potential for optimizing the water-use efficiency in paddy cultivation without any disturbing and harmful effect on its productivity, if weeds are controlled properly. A significant saving of 18 per cent was achieved for irrigating one hectare of the DSR farm in basmati and non-basmati varieties as compared to non-DSR farm. The mean overall technical efficiency was more in DSR farms as compared with non-DSR farms, with difference of about 12 per cent in basmati and 5 per cent in non-basmati fields. However, this difference was 7 per cent in basmati and 14 per cent in non basmati while calculating the average technical efficiency w. r. t water-use. Popularization of this technology among farmers in a participatory mode on a comprehensive scale needs a focused attention through capacity building of farmers.