Status of Crop Management Practices for Rice and Basmati Cultivation in South-Western Punjab

The present study was conducted in Mansa, a south-western district of Punjab with the objective of generating information on status of prevalent crop management practices being followed in traditional rice and basmati rice cultivation. For the purpose, data was recorded from 250 farmers representing villages of all five administrative blocks of Mansa. Area under recommended rice varieties varied between 20–28 per cent. Only 3 per cent rice was transplanted before 10^th June, while upto 40 per cent area was transplanted between 10–19^th June. Conversely, ∼40 per cent of the area under basmati rice was transplanted before the recommended time. About 35 per cent of traditional rice growers and 47 per cent of basmati rice growers followed recommended seed treatment practices. It was observed that 63–70 per cent of the traditional rice growers did not apply fertilizer-P, while 72–82 per cent did not apply fertilizer-K. It was also observed that ∼27 per cent of traditional rice growers, and 42% of basmati rice growers did not apply Zn to these crops. A large proportion (>85% of farmers) did not apply Fe fertilizer. On an average, ∼50 per cent of the farmers were applying pesticides 5–6 times in rice and 81 per cent of the farmers were applying insecticides 5–7 times in basmati crops.