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Courtesy UNI

Panjab (PAU) has launched a statewide campaign ''Save Water, Save Punjab'', aimed at creating awareness among the farmers to delay sowing of paddy to save the depleting water resources.

Specially designed posters to draw attention of the farmers on how fast water table goes down, will be pasted across the villages in the state emphasizing on the need to delay paddy transplantation till June 15. A graph on the poster shows that early sown paddy is detrimental to state's economy and ecology. If farmers sow paddy on May one, water depletion goes down to the extent of 17 cm per year, it decreases to 60 cm if paddy is sown on May 20, 28 cm if sown on May 30 and deputes to 60 cm if sown on June 10.

The campaign was launched last week from Sangrur, the worst effected district of Punjab where the water table fall in 2004-05 was 1.7 feet from earlier 8.7 feet, in all its 12 blocks.

According to PAU's Director of Extension Education, Dr S S Gill, soil scientists have observed over a period of time that delaying transplantation of paddy till or beyond June 15 helps to replenish the aquifer.

This campaign is a part of ''Niche Area Project on Soil and Water Management'' given to the PAU by the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) which has also provided Rs 2.6 crore.

The Additional Director Research (agri) at PAU Dr G S Hira, while launching the campaign said besides loss of water, ground water depletion was also detrimental to the soil health and causes nutrient deficiency.

Dr Hira said water depletion has reached an alarming proportion. As many as 100 out of 141 blocks in the state have been categorised as ''dark blocks''. The worst effected area is Central Punjab, where the water depth is below 30 feet in 95 per cent area and water table is falling at the rate of 54 cm per year on an average.

Dr Gill, who is spear-heading the state wide campaign said, pulling out large acreage from under paddy will take time. However, delaying transplantation of paddy till and beyond June 15 will at least save water. His advice to the farmers is to opt for less water consuming crops, particularly, horticultural and vegetables.

He called upon the farmers to sow five trees around their tube wells and water pumps to provide green cover to rural Punjab. Atleast three kanal should be earmaked for laying out an organic farm kitchen garden, of minimum five fruit trees should be sown to provide nutrition to the family, should be earmrked, he added.

During the campaign PAU scientists will also lay emphasis on efficient water management, wherein a properly levelled field enables to enchance the water usage by atleast 40 per cent and precision land levelling helps in better management of even soil, particularly in the high intensity cropping regions.

Farm power and machinery expert Dr V K Sharma, who is also Registrar, PAU and is involved in the campaign said that a training programme for the officials of the State Department of Soil and Water Conservation, Agriculture and Horticulture had already been provided. In all , 22 officials attended a recent five-day training programmes where experts from the Department of Soil and Water Engineering of the College of Agricultural Engineering (PAU) apprised them on efficient water management for sustainable agriculture.

Water, the participants were informed, is critical input for agriculture production and its judicious use is very crucial to check the declining water table.

Dr Sharma said the replacement of centrifugal pumps with submerisble pumps was a drain on the pockets of the farmers and it also means higher power consumption.

The more adverse possible effect of not checking the declining water table in the central districts could lead to the flow of poor quality water in the aquifers in south-west districts of Punjab towards the good quality water zones of central Punjab.

For levelling of the fields, laser ''leveller technology'' has also been tested by PAU experts but was opined to be a costly proposition. Unless accessibility and affordability of this instrument is ensured, it will be difficult to put this into common usage, experts said.

The resource person for the training programme, Dr M P Kaushal, who is the Head of Department of Soil and Water Engineering, at the launch on the campaign emphasised on the importance of artificial ground water re-charge through rain water harvesting.

Experts involved in the campaign will also get important tips on soil and water managagement by scientists from Central Soil and Water Conservation Reserach and Training, Institute, Chandigarh, Punjab Remote Sensing Centre in Ludhiana and CSSRI, Karnal