CHANDIGARH: While the alarm about the wheat-paddy crop rotation causing a dangerous fall in water table level that would turn Punjab into a desert in the near future could be an exaggeration, the cause of this problem is based in the double cropping pattern, lack of research and failure to identify the aquifers for recharge.

In his study, "Diversification of cropping pattern: A re-examination", head of the Punjab studies division of the Institute of Development and Communication (IDC), H.S. Shergill expresses his reservations about what he terms as "fatal flaw in the diversification thesis", which it is not based on any systematic evaluation of the

economics.

Prof. Shergill has asserted that the wheat-rice rotation alone could not be held responsible for the fall in water, as the phenomenon would be the same with any other crop combination, if double cropping is to be practiced on the entire area with the help of tubewell irrigation.

Quoting the evapo-transpiration water requirements of various crops as recorded by the known pro-diversification agri-economist, S.S. Johl, in the report submitted to the Union Government, Prof Shergill points

out that the consumption of wheat-paddy combination was 1080 mm. However, sugarcane crop, which was suggested by the Johl committee for diversification consumed 1600 mm, cotton-wheat required 1065 mm,

Moong-Sunflower 1150 mm, Moong-Winter Maize 1115 mm, Moong-Wheat 850 mm and Maize-Wheat 810 mm.

Instead of hammering a faulted premise, the study recommends that the state research establishment should focus its attention on improving the competitive advantage of Punjab farmers in wheat and rice, by drawing

indigenous lessons from the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) programme developed in Madagascar and successfully implemented some other countries.

The programme, which improved yields and reduced water intake by paddy, has three tenets which include transplanting the seedling when young, space the plants widely apart and keeping the soil moist instead of flooding it as is practiced in Punjab.

Prof. Shergill highlights that for the last four decades, very little research and funds have been devoted towards improvement of cultivation and culture of rice. He also suggests that falling water table can be easily tackled through effective policy actions like regulating the number and spacing of tubewells through a suitable farmer friendly law, controlling the quantum and timing of pumping out water through a properly tailored price regime and a strict control over the supply of power to tubewells. It also favours consolidation of the canals-tubewell network and creation of a symbiotic irrigation system, where brick-lining of canals and water channels be dismantled to enhance their recharging capacity.

For the last two decades the recommendation has remained the same, "shift area out of wheat and rice", but the justification has been changing from "market saturation to ground water depletion", depending on whatever could be used to support this policy. The study stresses that problem of ground water depletion is not so serious, that a massive reduction in area under only wheat and paddy was immediately necessary.

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