Punjab designates 2.75 mn hectares for paddy

The Punjab Agriculture Department has designated 2.75 million hectares under paddy cultivation this Kharif season. Further, it is expecting that that the actual production of paddy would touch 16.123 million tonnes this season. Officials are of the view on account of diversification and increase in cotton area, the total acreage would be less than the last year’s actual area.

However, agri experts in the state maintained that the actual area will cross 2.8 million hectares this Kharif season. They cited that even last year, the government had targeted to bring 2.75 million hectares under paddy cultivation, but the total area surpassed the designated target and touched 2.831 million hectares. Last year, the total production was 16.175 million tonnes of paddy.

It is worth mentioning that the present agriculture cropping pattern in the state is dominated by the wheat paddy rotation. Wheat and paddy cover major portion of the gross cropped area as area under these two crops has increased to 77 per cent in 2006-07 from 47 per cent in 1970-71.