Cases drop in Amritsar district
The epicentre of farm fires has shifted towards the districts of Malwa region, especially Ferozepur and Sangrur. The number of daily incidents being reported by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC) from here has also started to coming down. However, Amritsar district still accounts for nearly one fourth of the total 2,137 cases reported from Punjab.
As per the daily report issued by the PRSC, the district has reported a total of 497 farm fire cases. The fire incidents peaked during the second week of October, when the highest number of 62 cases were reported in a single day. Presently, only a few cases are being reported daily.
The decrease in the number of farm fire incidents is being attributed to the end of what could be termed as the first phase of paddy harvest. In this phase, farmers in the vegetable belt are in a hurry to sow potato and peas in the window period between the harvest of paddy and the sowing of wheat.
Vegetable cultivators, due to the short time frame for sowing crops, do not ‘waste’ time in alternate management of paddy residue which requires time-consuming farm practices. Amid the dwindling farm income, the cultivators, also called ‘progressive farmers’, go for three crops a year instead of two.
With the harvest of early sown basmati varieties already over, and the harvest of parmal varieties going on, the number of fire incidents is expected to escalate once again when farmers start reaping the late sown crop. Agriculture officials said harvest was expected to start during the second fortnight of November. Nearly 35 per cent of the area is under paddy varieties that are yet to be harvested.
“After harvest of basmati 1121, there is little time left for sowing of wheat,” said Joginder Singh, a farmer, adding that delay in sowing can cause substantial decrease in wheat yield. Farmers said a delay of one week causes a drop of nearly 1.5 quintals to two quintals of yield and it goes on multiplying with each passing week.
