PUNJAB: POLITICS OF PADDY

By Arjun Sharma

A poll gimmick that could cause an environmental crisis is how many experts describe Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh’s announcement at an election rally that farmers can sow paddy from June 13, instead of from June 20. While the announcement brought smiles to the faces of farmers like Krishan Singh, 58, of Sangrur, agronomists like Prof Gian Singh said this will put further pressure on the already depleted ground water availability. “Paddy is not conducive to Punjab’s environment,” said Prof Gian Singh.

Punjab’s farmers shifted from their traditional sugarcane-wheat cropping pattern to wheat-rice cropping when the green revolution introduced hybrid seeds to increase productivity. Till 2007, farmers could plant paddy whenever they wanted. But in 2009, the state government introduced the 'Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act' which allowed farmers to sow paddy from nurseries into the fields only on dates announced by the government. Rice in Punjab is sown in May-June and harvested in October-November, and the late sowing was to put less pressure on groundwater as farmers could use more surface water with the arrival of rains from June 1. The policy seemed to work as a subsequent study conducted to assess the changes in groundwater table after the implementation of Act found that the situation had improved. 

In fact, the date had been advanced to June 20 from June 15 just last year. A specific date, June 10, to sow paddy was fixed for the first time in 2008, and advanced to June 15 in 2014. Now, it has been preponed to June 13.

With polling in Punjab due on May 19, the Congress government obviously felt it had to do something to assuage farmers anger over successive state and central government sdoing little to solve their problems. The early sowing and no doubt another round of increase in paddy MSP later, which in recent years has been going up every year, may please the farmers to some extent. But the consequences of this move on water availability, even in the short and medium term, is what worries experts, especially given that the area under paddy has been going up every year.

//some of the editos queries are not answered. like the latest figures on ground water tables. Also, pl give figures to show how msp for paddy has gone up in the last three years or so.//

While the MSP on common variety of paddy was Rs 1470, it was Rs 1510 on Grade A quality of paddy in year 2016-17. The MSP was increased to Rs 1550 and Rs 1590 for common and Grade A variety respectively in year 2017-18. MSP further escalated and government fixed it at Rs 1750 and 1770 for common and A grade variety last year. http://fci.gov.in/procurements.php?view=89  Regular increase in MSP is another reason why farmers are not willing to leave the crop for any alternative.

As per a study by Central ground Water Board, In major part of the state, ground water levels are in the range of 10 to 20 meters. However around major cities like Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Amritsar and Sangrur, water levels are 20 to 40 meters deep.http://cgwb.gov.in/documents/papers/incidpapers/Paper%2011-%20sushil%20gupta.pdf

As it is, Punjab’s paddy crop guzzles far more water than in other states. According to the Commission for Agriculture Costs and Prices, “West Bengal, for example, consumes 2605 litres of water to produce a kilogram of rice compared to 5337 litres by Punjab”. The report added that “water is increasingly becoming scarce in India with high opportunity costs and it is imperative to augment water productivity i.e. water intake per kilogram of production”.

Over the years, the wheat-rice cropping pattern has put immense pressure on groundwater resulting in some areas of the state going dry. As per a report by the department of Soil and Water Conservation, Punjab, the demand of water for agricultural purposes is 43.7 Lacs Hectare metre of which 12.4 Lacs Hectare metre is met through over-exploitation of ground water resources. “Though not much change has been witnessed in the last few years in surface water resources, underground water resources have deteriorated to a large extent due to the paddy-wheat cycle followed during and after the green revolution. The area of Central Punjab where water table has gone down below the critical depth of 10m was three per cent in 1973, 25 per cent in 1990 and 46 per cent in 1994”. Another study by the Punjab Agricultural University said there is a decline of 41.6 cm in the state's groundwater depth every year. “This calls for urgent steps to conserve the available ground water and increasing the recharge of ground water resources,” the study pointed out. Economist, Sucha Singh added that the “subsidy on electricity by the state government has resulted in indiscriminate exploitation of ground water”. According to Punjab State Farmer’s and Farm Worker’s Commission, 110 out of 148 blocks in the state have been over exploited for groundwater. The extent of groundwater depletion can be seen from the depth of the tubewell in Krishan Singh’s field, which is more than 110 feet. Digging a borewell could cost anything between Rs 75,000 to Rs 1,50,000 depending on the depth of water table and other circumstances. Kishan Singh said his costs keep going up as he has to dig deeper every year for water. “There are farmers who have to spend a lot to dig really deep to reach the ground water when the water table further recedes” Krishan Singh said.

Farmers in Punjab are already reeling under the burden of debt from banks, co-operative societies and money lenders. Small farmers in particular are infuriated over the Congress government for failing to end their vicious circle of debt despite its claims before the 2017 assembly polls. Although partial waiver was introduced by the state government, it did not help the large chunk of cultivators who are under debt, especially to money-lenders. To what extent their anger will be assuaged by the CM’s decision to prepone paddy sowing remains to be seen.

What also remains to be seen is what action the CM takes if and when the warnings by experts of a potential water crisis comes true. The effects of the increased use of groundwater due to early sowing will need to be assessed. Professor Gian Singh adds that paddy not only consumed large amounts of ground water but is also a cause of pollution when farmers burn its straw after harvest. Late sowing and burning of stubble are inter-related phenomenon as sowing of paddy in June provides only a small window to the farmers between harvesting of the crop and sowing of wheat. To remove the stubble quickly, farmers prefer to burn it rather than spend money to have it removed. Although the state government last year introduced a subsidy on the cost of machines to remove paddy stubble, most farmers still chose to burn the stubble. 

One solution, according to Prof Gian Singh is for the government to frame policies that will incentivise farmers to go in for new crops that are environment friendly. "At present, there is income certainty for farmers from paddy. But paddy could be done away with from Punjab by just providing financial certainty to the farmers for growing other crops". As Jagbinder Singh, 65, a farmer in Sangrur put it, “small farmers (The total number of land holdings in Punjab is 10.93 lakh, of which 2.04 lakh (18.7%) are marginal farmers, 1.83 lakh (16.7%)  small farmers and 7.06 lakh (64.6%) farmers who hold land more two hectare) will not move away from growing paddy unless the government provides minimum support price (MSP) like it does for paddy”.

(EOM)\