Surinder Sud: The great Punjab myth

FARM VIEW

Punjab is a land of agricultural bounty. But of late, there's been a growing concern over a possible collapse of agriculture in the state due to excessive exploitation of land and water resources. The common notion is that the collapse is almost certain, until the cropping pattern is suitably modified and diversified.

A new study, "Information technology for sustainable agriculture in Punjab" (IT-SAP), sponsored by the Union Department of Science and Technology and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), however, reveals that such notions may not be completely true.

The pessimism is based largely on the plateauing of productivity as well as net returns from the state's two major crops "" rice and wheat. Soil fertility is believed to have dwindled due to a decline in its carbon content. Groundwater availability, as also its quality, too, is presumed to have declined.

Fortunately, the study based on elaborate field investigations categorically concludes that the soil in Punjab has withstood the strain of the Green Revolution much better than is generally believed. The credit for this goes largely to the use of proper inputs by the farmers.

However, it has also brought out a few areas of concern that have not received the kind of attention they deserve. These include the emerging deficiency of micro-nutrients like sulphur and boron.

The study analysed the situation in Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Mukatsar districts, representing the state's major agro-climatic regions, with field data collected between March 2001 and 2004. Interestingly, the study has demolished several other myths related to the vulnerability of agriculture in the region.

It says that not all the water used in paddy fields goes waste. A sizeable part is returned to the sub-soil storage system through seepage. Of the total average water input of around 1,945 mm, only about 1,335 mm is actually consumed. Of the rest, about 560 mm is lost due to evapo-transpiration and the remaining 50 mm is added back to the sub-soil system.

As far as the argument that rice is responsible for the lowering of the groundwater table goes, the study contends that the correlation is not straightforward and further investigation is needed to make at a definite conclusion.

Similarly, as far as the status of soil fertility is concerned, fresh investigations indicate that the situation is not as bad as it is made out to be. For instance, the latest assessment reveals that only about 10.7 per cent of the area in Patiala is deficient in zinc, against the general impression that at least 75 per cent of the land is zinc-starved.

Again, the data on organic carbon "" an important indicator of soil health "" shows that only about 11.5 per cent of the area is low in this content in Patiala. The rest is either medium or high in organic carbon. Similar trends have been observed in Ludhiana, Amritsar and Hoshiarpur districts.

On the positive side, the study reveals that cultivation of chickpea (gram or chana) provides about two times higher economic returns to the growers compared to wheat and can, thus, be a good alternative. Chickpea also improves soil fertility by capturing nitrogen from air and fixing it in the soil and requires only one-fifth the quantity of water for successful growth.

According to R K Midha, advisor to the IT-SAP project, one surprising discovery during the course of the study was that the database for the dynamics of the natural resources was extremely poor. Most of the cynicism is due to generalisations based on conclusions drawn from this data.

In the case of groundwater resources, Midha points out that the network of monitoring stations is too sparse to capture the existing spatial variations.

"Very little data is available on the status of the deeper aquifers (lower than 35 metres) that are actually exploited for irrigation. There is no regular monitoring of the groundwater quality," he says.

He also points out that there is only one standard meteorological observatory at the Ludhiana-based Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) on the basis of which agro-advisories are issued for the entire state.

It is, indeed, surprising that though agriculture is the mainstay of the state's economy, adequate effort has not gone into building up of a reliable database.

More shocking is the fact that the policies have been laid down based on inadequate and, often, misplaced information. At fault, obviously, is as much the state agriculture department as PAU, which is not only one of the country's oldest farm varsities but has been among the best in the past.

In fact, agricultural scientists and other experts need to explain the reason for their failure to point out this lacuna. Even high-level experts committees that have been churning out strategies for remodelling Punjab's agriculture seem to have based their recommendations on inadequate information. The entire issue needs to be reviewed afresh.