In response to farmers’ concerns about labor shortages, Punjab Chief Minister, Amarinder Singh declared an improvement of paddy nursery. It goes with a-10-day improvement in paddy nursery seeding and transplantation dates on Saturday. The sowing and transplantation operations for paddy nursery will now begin on May 10 and June 10, respectively.
Earlier in the current kharif season, the Department of Agriculture had set May 10. The date, then, goes to begin sowing paddy nursery and June 20 for paddy transplantation.
In view of the labor shortage resulting from migrant laborers returning to their homes, in the light of the COVID-19 crisis, the farmers had raised concerns about meeting the growing / sowing requirements. The chief minister said it was in farmers’ interest to move the dates forward by 10 days. These worries then describes as “comprehensible”.
Underlining the need to follow the latest practice of Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), the policy then goes for the farmers as well as mechanized paddy transplantation technologies. The Chief Minister directed Viswajeet Khanna, Additional Chief Secretary (Development) gave his response. He said that to leverage the resources of the agricultural department’s extension staff to provide all technical support to farmers.
Farmers should be supported to make efficient use of paddy transplants and DSR machinery, he said. This advanced technology would be instrumental in filling the gap created by migrant labor shortages, he added.
Furthermore, in order to make it easier for farmers to ensure timely transplantation of paddy, Amarinder also directed the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to make appropriate arrangements to facilitate the uninterrupted supply of electricity to the agricultural sector during this period, as provided for in an official release.
