In a heartening development in water-stressedPunjab, cultivation area under the water-guzzlingnon-basmati paddy crophas come down by over four lakh acres (1.62 lakh hectares).In comparison, area under the less water-guzzlingbasmaticrop has increased by 1.97 lakh acres (79,000 hectares). Taking both into account, area under basmati and non-basamaati paddy shrunk by 2.08 lakh acres (83,000 hectares).

rawan239

2 years ago

As basmati is sown late, when monsoon has already set in and evapotranspiration (ET) ratio has down, it consumes less water. For

less consumption of underground water, paddy transplantation through water-saving direct seeded rice (DSR) technique too has increased to 6 lakh hectares from the previous 5 lakh hectares. In this technique, 12% less water is consumed.

In Punjab, 85% Join Our Telegram Channel

href="https://exam.pscnotes.com/water-Resources“>Water Resources used for crop Irrigation. As perPAUexperts, 73% area in Punjab is irrigated through tube wells and 80% area has converted into dark zones as extraction of underground water is more than recharge. Punjabs groundwater availability is of 21.58 billion cubic metre (BCM), whereas extraction is 35.78 BCM through nearly 15 lakh tube wells, which is 165% of availability. Of 35.78 BCM, 34.58 BCM is used for irrigation.