Healthy paddy nursery first step towards high yield: PAU

Ludhiana, April 14

The time to harvest wheat crop is here, some farmers have harvested the crop while others are about to. After wheat, the next crop that most of the farmers in Punjab grow is paddy and preparations for the same have already begun.

The first step towards achieving higher yields of paddy crop is the healthy paddy nursery. It is common for paddy nurseries to suffer from lack of nutrients, weed problems and sparse seedling patches.

“Paddy nursery should not be sown under shade and near straw heap. For sowing paddy nursery, the field should be close to the water source and free from pebbles and weeds,” said Amit Kaul from Department of Agronomy, Punjab Agricultural University.

“To obtain maximum yield from any crop, the seed must be healthy, pure and weedless. Healthy seeds should be procured from reliable sources such as Punjab Agricultural University, etc. If the paddy seed of desired variety has been kept by the farmer from previous year crop, farmer must check that the seed is free from any disease, pest attack and weed seed mixture,” said Gagandeep Dhawan from PAU’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala.