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THE warning bells have been ringing since a few years now. Growing paddy is becoming more and more unsustainable in Punjab. Besides ecological concerns, including severe depletion of ground water, paddy from Punjab is also no longer as needed by other states as earlier.
It has been nearly a year since the last warning was sounded by none other than Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Though it did spur Punjab into preparing a draft agriculture policy, the state will have to wait for another year for diversification to take place on ground. While all attempts at diversification since years have failed simply because there were no viable alternatives, there has been a slight movement away from sowing of coarse paddy varieties to ‘basmati’. The government aims to encourage this further as basmati, which is sown in time with the monsoon, is a shorter duration crop and consumes less water than the coarse varieties. In line with the new draft agriculture policy, the government aims to minimise manipulation of prices of ‘basmati’ by ensuring a minimum purchase price for this crop. In return, it has promised traders exemption from various taxes, including the rural development and infrastructure development levees and mandi fee. The minimum price, which is to be determined by a committee, including traders, has not yet been announced because the market price is expected to rise sharply. Fixing it in a hurry could leave farmers with smaller gains. The price will be fixed in case market prices dip. The government expects an additional 60,000-70,000 hectares to come under basmati this season, taking the total area under the aromatic variety to around 6 lakh hectares. Paddy powered by free electricity The free power made available to farmers in Punjab is seen as the major reason why diversification from paddy has failed despite the various attempts over the past decade. According to a survey conducted by the Agriculture Department — which has not been made public — farmers have lost out due to severe water depletion, especially in central Punjab. More than 54 per cent farmers have bored deeper to reach water and installed submersible motors for their tubewells over the past seven years in Punjab. Around 45 per cent have got their motors rewound to increase the power due to the increased load or simply purchased higher capacity motors. This cost of new motors and deeper bore wells — costing up to Rs 3 lakh per bore well — is not being taken into account by either the farmers or the government while calculating the “benefit” given to farmers in the form of free electricity. Rollback Agriculture experts agree that only taking back the free power facility, even if partially, will make diversification from paddy possible. This has been listed in the draft agriculture policy also, which has proposed that the government should roll back free power partially. Ironically, immediately after the release of the free power policy, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal made a statement saying free power for farm operations will continue. Sources say the Chief Minister is loath to reversing it. However, circumstances — including the ever increasing subsidy bill, which is touching Rs 6,000 crore at present — could yet force a rethink, though not likely before the Lok Sabha elections. Returns decide Agriculture Commissioner Dr Balwinder Singh Sidhu, who has played an important role in finalising the draft agriculture policy along with the Punjab Farmers Commission, says economic return is the most important factor in farmers’ choice of crops. He says farmers need to be assured of at least 15 per cent higher returns as compared to paddy to motivate them to shift to alternative crops, as they will have to create the infrastructure needed, including seed drills, raised bed planters and harvesters. Calculating on this contention, if the gross return from paddy over the variable cost is Rs 53,075 per hectare, the return from alternative crops should be about Rs 61,000 per hectare. To make this possible, the MSP of various crops would have to be raised substantially, besides ensuring efficient marketing of the alternatives. Dr Sidhu says over time the area under paddy has increased substantially in Punjab due to its higher profitability (see table). Free
will While the government is moving towards an assured price for basmati and will have to announce one for maize also to encourage farmers to take up its cultivation, there is no proposal to use any coercive means to regulate growth of paddy in central Punjab, including Ludhiana, Sangrur and Moga districts, where water depletion has been the maximum, or in the Kandi area, where it was never sown earlier. Agriculture experts and officials say the “farmer friendly” government does not have the political will to enforce this step.
THE ALTERNATIVES
Maize According to an agriculture department analysis, the minimum support price (MSP) of maize would have to be increased by Rs 868 from the present Rs 1,850 per quintal for it to compete with paddy. Other issues include arrangements to ensure its efficient procurement, including mechanised dryers in markets to reduce the moisture content before procurement. Sugarcane Pulses (1 lakh hectares at present) Fruits and vegetables
(85,000 hectares) Agro-forestry (1.3 lakh hectares
at present)
Tubewells
11,000 Tubewell connections in
Punjab till the 1960s. 13 lakh (Paddy was earlier grown along rivers and canals in Punjab)
Expertspeak
Free power must go Alternatively, farmers could be given 300 units of power free per month. Anyone drawing more than this should be charged, and electronic meters should be installed on all tubewells. A 7.5 HP motor consumes five units in an hour. If the farmer runs a motor for six hours a day, it would consume 30 units. This means a farmer could draw free power for 10 days in a month. If implemented, this would not allow farmers to grow paddy on a large scale. Bigger farmers with 15 HP motors would then not find it very attractive to grow paddy. They would thus have to diversify, or pay for power consumed beyond 300 units. As only 1 lakh tubewells have metered supply at present, the proposal would take two years to implement, as electronic meters would have to be installed on the remaining 10 lakh tubewells in the state. Though it would be useful if a law could be brought in to limit paddy cultivation, but it would be very difficult to implement. Only a blanket ban could be implemented, but that too is not possible in near future. — Dr G S Kalkat, Chairman, Punjab State Farmers Commission, and former PAU Vice-Chancellor Policy contradiction — Dr R S Ghuman, Nehru SAIL Chair head at the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh.
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Ironically, this year rains arrived in time for the start of paddy seedling transplantation season on June 10, which has encouraged farmers to stick to paddy. A good monsoon could ensure a bumper crop and even reduce the dependence on power to irrigate the nearly 28 lakh hectares that will be under paddy this season.
The government has failed to acknowledge that the subsidy is harming the farmers themselves, as they go deeper and deeper to tap into ground water, all because the electricity to pump it is free.
Kharif Maize, sown the same time as paddy, is seen as the next big hope by the government. The draft policy aims to increase the area under maize from the present 1.3 lakh hectares to 5.5 lakh hectares. However, despite the talk for past year, the government has failed to create the necessary conditions to encourage farmers to take up maize.
The government wants to increase the current 80,000 hectares under sugarcane to 2.5 lakh. Sugarcane has been traditionally sown in Punjab but with sugar mills turning sick and non-payment of dues becoming a regular feature, farmers have simply stopped planting sugarcane. The position of sugar mills has not changed much, and there is a problem of labour in winter to harvest the crop. A twin strategy of making quality seed and mechanised harvesting available to farmers, and making sugar mills viable by adding co-generation (power generation from the waste) and bio-ethanol production is being mooted. But making sugarcane popular again remains an uphill task.
Cotton
Other options
Paddy is at present grown on 28 lakh hectares, and 12 lakh hectares need to be taken out of this to check ground water depletion. The best way is to provide free power to farmers only for a certain acreage. The small and marginal farmers — who constitute 30 per cent in the state — could be covered under this facility. This would not burden the state, as these farmers cultivate only 8 per cent of the total area.
The government cannot continue to provide free power to farmers to irrigate their paddy crop and simultaneously plead with them to diversify. Due to the free power, no other crop would be in a position to beat the wheat-paddy combination in profit. Diversification from paddy can happen only if the government ensures more income for farmers by offering attractive MSP for alternative crops. Another alternative could be to pay the farmers for the earnings lost in giving up paddy.