A calling: Growing paddy nurseries

Acute shortage of agricultural labour in Punjab earlier forced farmers to use paddy transplanters.

Acute shortage of agricultural labour in Punjab earlier forced farmers to use paddy transplanters; now transplanters have created a new subsidiary occupation – that of raising paddy nurseries and transplanting seedlings in the fields.

While transplanters only accept paddy specially raised on mats or in plastic trays,most farmers are not keen on the cumbersome task. Their reluctance has prompted other farmers to raise nurseries not only for themselves but also for supplying it to other farmers on custom-hiring basis.

Agricultural department engineer Navdeep Singh said growing nurseries has a huge potential in a state where nearly 27 lakh hectares of land is dedicated to paddy cultivation every year.

Under the traditional method,it costs around Rs 6,000 to raise a nursery and planting it in an acre. For transplanting to be done through a transplanter,it costs just Rs 3,500 to Rs 4,000 per acre, added Navdeep Singh

For raising a paddy nursery on a mat,we clean earth in a wide mesh and lay earth on a polythene sheet. We then put the seed on it and again sprinkle some earth,Thereafter,the mat is watered for three days, said Harinder Singh,a farmer of Nurpur village in Jalandhar. The nursery is raised on polythene sheets of 22 inches width,20 feet length and 1 inch thickness,or on plastic trays of 1×2 feet.

The nurseries take 25 days to get ready for transplantation.

Harinder has this season supplied mat nurseries to 56 farmers having over 200 acres of land. I not only supply nurseries but also transplant them in their fields as I have also purchased a transplanter, said Harinder,who owns over 100 acres of land.

Farmers fetch between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000 for every acre of transplantation.

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Amolak Singh of Khukhrain village in Kapurthala district has also grown nurseries for around 20 farmers for their 60 acres of land.

I am also educating small farmers to grow nurseries. It is not a difficult work,it only needs a little bit of extra care, added Amolak who,too,has purchased a paddy transplanter.

The new occupation has come as a boon for agriculturists who often encounter the problem of labour shortage. It is not only a cost-effective technology but can also change the face of paddy cultivation in the days to come, said Deputy Directory Krishi Vigyan Kendra,Dr Kuldeep Singh.

Around 600 transplanters have already been purchased by cooperative societies and individual farmers in the state so far,and paddy is expected to be transplanted this year on 25,000 to 30,000 acres of land.