Dept pins hopes on direct-seeded rice to save Karnal groundwater

Parveen Arora

Karnal, May 30

The Agriculture Department has increased the target for the use of direct-seeded rice (DSR) on 30,000 acres this year from 25,000 acres (last year’s target) in Karnal district to boost groundwater conservation. The department has actively started promoting this initiative, and has achieved a target of nearly 3,000 acres, so far.

Karnal, renowned as the rice belt of Haryana, faces severe groundwater depletion due to the excessive use of water in cultivationand otherwise. The Karnal block has an average groundwater level of 16.61 metres, placing it in the dark zone, similar to 85 other blocks across the state. The department is optimistic that promoting DSR will help conserve groundwater.

According to agricultural experts, DSR is a method that eliminates the need to flood fields for seeding the paddy crop. Instead, the rice crop is sown like other cereals, pulses and oilseed crops in a ‘vattar’ field, prepared after pre-sown irrigation.

Dr Virender Lather, former principal scientist at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute Regional Station, Karnal, said after sowing the crop through DSR, fields require water only after 15 to 21 days, instead of the constant flooding needed for traditionally transplanted rice. “DSR saves 30 per cent of groundwater irrigation on an average as compared to transplanted rice,” Dr Lather added.

The DSR technique not only conserves groundwater but is also cost-effective for farmers. By reducing the amount of water needed for irrigation and lowering cultivation costs, DSR presents a farmer and eco-friendly alternative to traditional rice farming methods, he added.

Farmers are being encouraged to switch to this method through awareness campaigns. Sources in the Agriculture Department said DSR had shown significant positive results during previous sowing seasons.

Deputy Director Agriculture Wazir Singh said paddy is cultivated on nearly 4.25 lakh acres, of which 40 per cent of the area is covered by basmati and remaining by non-basmati varieties.

He said DSR would play a crucial role in groundwater conservation in Karnal and urged farmers to adopt this method of cultivation. “If farmers start replacing traditional methods with DSR, it will help save huge quantities of water,” he said. He added that farmers opting for the DSR scheme not only get Rs 4,000 per acre as incentive, but also there is a subsidy for buying a DSR machine.