Paddy harvest nears, farmers still await DSR incentive

Thousands of farmers, who opted the technique of direct seeding of rice (DSR) against the conventional transplantation method to conserve groundwater, are yet to receive ₹1,500 per acre incentive that was promised by the state government. Three months have already gone by since the said variety had been sown and it is nearing the harvest.

The Punjab agriculture department has stated that the crop verification process is still ongoing and will take a few more weeks before the funds are disbursed. Dr Jaswant Singh, director of the department, when asked about the delay, explained, “Due to rains, the verification process was delayed. We are currently in the second round of physical verification of the paddy fields. The deadline for agriculture officers to upload data of the farmers who had opted for the DSR method has been extended on our online portal. Once this is complete, we will begin disbursing the incentives.”

This year, the area sown using the water-saving DSR method has increased to 2.48 lakh acres, up from 1.72 lakh acres in the kharif season in 2023. Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian had announced that chief minister Bhagwant Mann-led state government would offer ₹1,500 per acre as financial assistance to encourage farmers to adopt the water-saving DSR method.

Last year, approximately ₹20.33 crore was distributed to 17,116 farmers to support the adoption of DSR. This year, the state government has earmarked ₹50 crore for this purpose.

Sandeep Singh, a small farmer from Balbhera village in Patiala, shared his concerns, “I sowed paddy on three acres of land. Following the advice of the agriculture department, I took the risk of using the DSR, despite concerns about weed growth. I had to spray herbicide to control weeds, which increased the costs. Now, the government has been delaying the incentive, which will discourage farmers from taking up such risks in the future.”

Another farmer, Kuldeep Singh from Charason village in Ghannaur block, said, “We have to harvest the paddy sown using the DSR method in the next two weeks, but the department has yet to disburse the funds. The neighbouring Haryana government has already started releasing the incentives to its farmers, but Punjab is still busy in conducting surveys.”