Water-guzzling spring maize worries agriculture experts

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, May 16

A sudden rise in the area under spring maize has become a cause of worry for the Agriculture Department because of high water consumption. In Jalandhar, 9,000 hectares were under the crop in 2020-2021, which has now increased to 15,526 hectares. In Kapurthala too, the situation is similar. Reason: Better yield per acre and good price.

Several farmers, who were earlier growing muskmelon in the Shahkot area of Jalandhar and the Dona area of Kapurthala, have now switched over to growing spring maize in their fields and have reduced the area under muskmelon. Farmer Amar Singh from Shahkot said he had reduced the area under muskmelon to less than 10 acres from 50 acres because of little profit in the past several years.

Dr Surinder Sandhu, Principal Maize Breeder at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), said, “The practice of sowing maize after wheat is devastating because every third day, farmers are watering their fields. This will create another havoc just like paddy. Strangely, farmers from the districts that come under the dark zone are also following the same practice,” she said.

Agriculture experts said spring maize required much more water than muskmelon. Chief Agriculture Officer Jaswant Rai said the department did not encourage farmers or promote spring maize. “We hold camps and meetings with farmers to make them aware of the drawbacks of spring maize,” he said.