Pepsi's paddy cultivation method saves water by 40%

While environmentalists have expressed concern at the continuous lowering of the water table in Punjab, PepsiCo today introduced a solution for it in the form of direct seeding of paddy to save water by at least 40 per cent.

"After our experiments on 25 acres at Jallowal here, it has transpired that the direct seeding technique has reduced water consumption by 40 per cent (1,000 kl/acre) and production cost by Rs 1,000-1,200 per acre," Abhiram Seth, PepsiCo India executive director (exports & external affairs), said, adding fields that were cultivated using this technique were currently in the process of being harvested.

Earlier, PepsiCo India had carried out trials to reduce water consumption during paddy cultivation at its R&D farms at Jallowal for over three years, he said.

"Generally, paddy is grown by planting seeds in a small nursery and manually transplanting the paddy saplings after about four weeks to the main cultivation area. The saplings are then allowed to grow and the fields are kept under about 3 inches of water, mainly to reduce growing weeds. This 'puddle irrigation' requires high water consumption," Seth said, adding the direct seeding method tested by PepsiCo had been shown to reduce water consumption and production cost.

"Paddy cultivation is known to be highly water-intensive. Over a period, this has resulted in a decline in the water table in Punjab. In addition, farmers have been incurring high energy cost due to the extensive running of pump sets. PepsiCo India, as part of its effort to improve sustainability in Indian agriculture, started this project three years ago," he said, adding PepsiCo was working to share the results of the direct seeding trials with a larger community of farmers and would like to popularise this method in order to reduce water consumption and production cost during paddy cultivation.