Team Herald
PANJIM: In a bid to increase paddy cultivation in a relatively cheaper and time saving manner, Directorate of Agriculture has introduced a paddy seed sowing machine to sow germinated paddy seeds directly in wetland fields.
The concept, introduced on a pilot basis, is expected to reduce labour cost, bring uniformity in rice seed sowing and plant population and increase production.
Agriculture Director Uhas Pai Kakode said the automatic rice sowing machine will help farmers do away with manual planting of germinated seeds. “Farmers from across the State can benefit from the new system once the pilot project is a success. We are examining the present status of the cultivation being carried out in certain pockets of the State,” he said.
Such a seed planter was earlier introduced for growing local pulse crops, which turned out to be a huge success following which the department decided to use the technology for paddy cultivation.
“Around 10 acres of fields in Bardez and Salcete were taken up for planting pulse crops. Our experts found the mechanized way of cultivating these crops proved fruitful in all aspects benefiting the farmers and local consumers. It was then decided to introduce the concept for rice production, on a pilot basis at the initial stage,” the director stated.
The total production in the last three years fluctuated between 80,000 to 81,000 tonnes while the total area for cultivation reduced as figures indicate that 31,255 ha was used for paddy cultivation in 2012-13, which came down to 28,840 ha and further dropped to 27,840 ha in the year 2013-14 and 2014-15 respectively.
