Paddy planting machine comes to rescue of farmers

Gurminder Singh Grewal

Samrala, June 22

Due to the shortage of migrant labourers, the farmers in the area are using new machines for the transplantation of paddy in the fields. In some villages, the women are also coming forward to sow paddy. Some farmers have introduced new machines for this purpose that are certified by PAU Ludhiana. 

A new machine known as Rice Paddy Transplanter is proving to be of great help to the farmers and these machines are sowing paddy on a faster speed than manual transplanting. 

Sukhjit Singh, a farmer of Diwala village, who is to sow paddy in about 60 acres said the price of the new machine ranges from Rs 3 lakh and goes up to Rs 14 lakh as per size of the fields. He gave information that this season, the labourers were demanding Rs 3,200 per acre and five laborers sow about 1 acre of paddy daily. 

Sukhjit said the machine sowed one acre of paddy in two hours. He said with this machine, about 25-30 saplings of paddy are planted in one square meter space while through manual sowing, only 15 saplings are planted at a time. 

  He also said with the sowing of paddy with this machine, he is hopeful of an increase in production of about 2-3 quintals per acre and the machine is also less expensive than the manual plantation. He further said these machines were also available on subsidy. Baldev Singh, district head, Agriculture Department said till now, about 600 machines had come in fields out of which 125 machines have been purchased in Ludhiana district alone. 

Such machines are helpful by all means as they reduce the use of water and lowers the expenses of farmers. 

Meanwhile, the women have also been pitching in some villages for sowing paddy as there is a paucity of migrant labourers in villages.