M A I N   N E W S

Farmers upbeat after showers
Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 18
Farmers are in a upbeat mood in most parts of the Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. The reason is moderate to heavy rainfall in the past 48 hours in various parts of these states. It is a complete reversal of the situation that prevailed during last year in this month in the region.

Weather experts say that similar conditions will continue for the next 48 hours in the region. Heavy rainfall is expected at certain places in Himachal Pradesh. There has been about 84mm rainfall in most of the places in the region, according to experts. It has also led to fall in the temperature in the region.

“It was widespread and almost all region was covered,” said a senior officer of the Met Department. The water level in most of the rivers in the region is on the rise but it has not touched the danger level in any river.

Owing to good rainfall, demand for power has started decreasing.” “Today, we closed three units of the Ropar Thermal Plant as situation became comfortable on the power supply front in Punjab. As generation of power from thermal plants proves costly, to save money their shutdown is given top priority in case of fall in the demand for power in the state,” said a top officer of the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB).

“Last year we faced drought. In absence of rain, it had become difficult even to find green fodder to feed livestock. However, all that is in the past now. Rain gods seems to be in a jolly mood this year,” said Mr Baj Singh, a farmer at Niamatpur village near here. The normal monsoon, so far, has brightened the prospects of kharif crops in the region.

The paddy transplantation is almost complete in Punjab. “We have been planting the paddy now only in those fields which have been recently vacated because of the harvesting of green fodder,” said Mr Sukhdev Singh, a farmer from Mirzapur village, near Patiala.

Farmers say that this year the yield of paddy will be better as compared to last year, when sale of the most of the kharif crops had remained under distress because of the prolonged drought. They expect 15 to 20 per cent increase in the paddy yield, “If everything goes well in the days to come, then one can expect bumper paddy crop this year,” said a senior officer of the Punjab Agricultural Department.

The sub-soil water-table, that has been going down constantly, has also started improving. However, only after just good rainfall during the entire monsoon season, there will be adequate improvement in the sub-soil water-table, say experts. For the past two years, water-table has been going down constantly in the areas such as Moga, Sangrur, Sunam, Patiala, Amritsar etc.

The Haryana Agricultural Department authorities say that the rain has been useful for many parts of the state where paddy has been sown a bit late. About 8 lakh hectares of land is covered under paddy in Haryana whereas the area in Punjab is over 20 lakh hectares. The rain is also good for other crops such as cotton, sugarcane, pulses and fodder etc.

Meanwhile, the PSEB has withdrawn all power cuts imposed on industry. “We have even started giving additional supply up to 12 hours every day in two shifts to the agricultural sector whereas earlier it was given only for about 8 hours,” said a PSEB officer. On July 16, demand for power was around 1177 lakh units while it came down to 1110 lakh units yesterday and to 1000 lakh units today, he added.