DC Ashika Jain sets worth emulating precedence, Drives tractor to Promote DSR

DC Ashika Jain sets worth emulating precedence, Drives tractor to Promote DSR

Exhorts Farmers to Promote  Direct Seeding of Rice and Get an Incentive of Rs 1500 per Acre

Nabaz-e-Punjab Bureau, SAS Nagar (Mohali), June 20, 2023:
To encourage direct seeding of rice (DSR) among farmers, the Deputy Commissioner Ashika Jain, today set worth emulating precedence by herself driving a tractor in the fields of farmer Avtar Singh at village Jawaharpur for promoting DSR.
She was accompanied by  Additional Deputy Commissioner (Rural Development) Amit Bamby and Dera Bassi SDM Himanshu Gupta.
       While leading the awareness campaign from front  to sensitise the farmers about direct seeding of rice  to save natural resources of water, she said that Chief Minister, S. Bhagwant Singh Maan has also announced to give an incentive of Rs 1500 per acre to farmers so that the maximum number of farmers would be inspired to adopt the DSR technique of sowing paddy. She added that the traditional and existing technique of transplanting seedlings is not good for the soil health and consumes more water, resulting in depleting water table. She said that by promoting DSR technique, one can save underground water, power used to operate tubewell and more over the environment and the health of the soil. This technique also helps in saving manpower.
        The Deputy Commissioner, Ashika Jain while encouraging the farmers to adopt DSR technique by driving a tractor said that to increase the fertility of the land by using this technique, will result in a higher yield of the crop and to get rid of the traditional way of sowing. She said that about 75, 000 acres of agriculture land is under paddy in the district, if we double the area under direct sowing than last year, then we can improve the soil health and also save money by adding that previous year around 1750 acres of land was brought under direct sowing.
Chief Agriculture Officer, Gurbachan Singh said that the transplantation way of sowing paddy has created a hard cement-like layer in the field, which is called sodium layer, this hard layer does not allow rain and irrigation water (recharging of water) to go down, due to which ground water is continuously depleting. Apart from that, due to non absorption of the water used for irrigation due to the hard layer, the water turns into dangerous gases which further pollutes the climate after evaporation.
During the exhibition to promote direct sowing, farmers Avtar Singh, Kamaljit Singh, Malkit Singh, Balbir Singh, Ajit Singh Panch, Tony Panch and officials from Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, Harsangeet Singh, Dr Danish Kumar, Sukhjit Kaur, Manjit Singh, Gulshan Kumar, BDPO and Tehsildar were among the prominent persons present there.