Baldev Singh Bath shows his fields that have Pusa-44 variety of paddy planted. (Express photo by Anju Agnihotri Chaba) Agriculture scientists recommend practices farmers don’t always follow – or do so on their own terms. Take Baldev Singh Bath. This 47-year-old from Jalaldiwal in Ludhiana district’s Raikot tehsil grows Pusa-44, a “non-recommended” paddy variety due to its long duration of 160 days from nursery sowing to grain harvesting. “When it yields me 35 quintals per acre, why should I plant PR-126 and PR-121 that give 28-30 quintals (although only over 125 days and 140 days respectively),?” he asks.
But what Bath is doing different is growing Pusa-44 by ‘Tar-wattar direct seeding of rice (T-DSR)’, a water-saving cultivation technique evolved by the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) in Ludhiana. In T-DSR, farmers give a rauni (pre-sowing) irrigation and wait for 4-5 days till the field has ‘tar-wattar’ or sufficient workable soil moisture. They then sow paddy seeds directly on this field using a PAU-designed tractor-drawn Lucky Seed Drill, which simultaneously applies herbicides – one litre of ‘Stomp’ (pendimethalin) and 80 gm of ‘Saathi’ (pyrazosulfuron ethyl) per acre – to prevent the emergence of weeds. T-DSR is an alternative to conventional transplanting, where paddy seeds are first raised into young plants in a nursery, before being uprooted and re-planted about 30 days later. The main field where transplanting is done has to be “puddled” or tilled in flooded conditions. The plants thereafter need to be irrigated almost daily for the first three weeks or so to ensure continuous standing water, which acts as a natural herbicide against weeds in the crop’s early growth stage. Puddling and transplantation are water-intensive; cultivating long-duration paddy varieties make it worse.
Bath is, however, growing Pusa-44 by T-DSR. Last year, his average grain yield was 35 quintals per acre, 2 quintals more than from transplanting and puddling. Thus, he has been defying government advice – to replace Pusa-44 (bred by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute that has stopped supplying its seeds) with the PAU’s short-duration varieties such as PR-121 and PR-126 – even while deploying a water-saving cultivation technology.
His defiance hasn’t stopped there. Under T-DSR, developed by PAU agronomists Jasvir Singh Gill and Makhan Singh Bhullar, farmers are supposed to do the first post-sowing irrigation after 21 days. Bath this time sowed on May 12 (the recommended “ideal” time is June 1-15) and irrigated on June 23 (after 42 days): “It was more by accident. I had planned to irrigate during the first week of June, but there was no water as the Bathinda Feeder (of the Sirhind Canal) was under repair. The canal water came only on June 23”.
Despite this, the Pusa-44 crop on his five-acre T-DSR plot has turned out very good. “We did have mild rain on May 20, but paddy under T-DSR can clearly survive even delayed irrigation. Also, plant response to water is better because of proper root development. Everyone here was surprised that the crop could tiller so much within 9-10 days after the first irrigation,” claims Bath.
“For us too, it was a revelation to see the field of this farmer who has gone beyond our recommendation,” admits Bhullar. Bath tried out T-DSR first in 2020 on one acre, which he expanded to 5 acres in 2021 and the current season. Next year, he plans to do it on 15 acres. “No paddy variety gives a higher yield than Pusa-44. The best thing about T-DSR is that I can now grow this with 13-14 irrigations, compared to 26-27 through regular puddling and transplanting. And there is 2 quintals/acre extra yield,” he points out.
Significantly, out of Bath’s total 40 acres land, 35 acres are still under transplanted Pusa-44. “I will switch to T-DSR only in stages. And I will, of course, continue with Pusa-44. If I can sow by mid-May and harvest towards October 25, it still gives enough time to plant wheat,” he adds.
Incidentally, Bath does not burn any stubble from his combine-harvested paddy. He, instead, uses a rotavator for incorporating the stubble into the soil and a Happy Seeder to sow wheat on this field. The equipment is taken on rent from a machine bank of the GBDSGNS Foundation, an NGO that works on stubble management and T-DSR. “Bath has not only adopted conservation agriculture but inspired others as well,” says Harminder Singh Sidhu, CEO of the foundation, which has about 150 machines (including Lucky and Happy Seeders, rotavators, mould board ploughs, harrows and balers) for custom hiring by farmers mainly in villages of Raikot tehsil.