The state of Punjab which has been literally feeding India, with its annual contribution of 53 percent of wheat and 40 percent of paddy to the food stocks of the country was, at the time of India's independence in 1947, a food grain deficit area with only 52.3% of its area under irrigation. The 1960s Green Revolution changed all of that. Introduction of dwarf wheat germ-plasm and dwarf varieties for paddy crop resulted in quantum leaps in production. The high tide of the Green Revolution led to intensive production which then led to the emergence of crop monocultures, in general, as farmers, enticed by the productivity of the high yielding varieties of seeds promoted by the agricultural establishment of the country, switched to rice and wheat rotation. Pulses and coarse grains were sidelined – paddy and wheat was where the money was and to which over 71 percent of the gross cultivated area was put to. Farm machinery, pesticides and fertilisers and irrigation dramatically increased the productivity of land. Today 95.1 % of the net sown area gets irrigated by a web of canals and tubewells.
But, land as a factor of production has its limitations to support the intensity of such agricultural practises. Crop yields and water resources have started to decline steeply as a result. Realising that the ecological threat was real and closer home, the state government now plans to wean away farmers from such paddy-wheat cropping patterns. With stagnant growth rates of 73 percent, Punjab has been forced to undertake this shift in farming practises. It is now seeking a INR 1,280 crore support from the central government. It needs this money to compensate its farmers for switching from the traditional cropping system. By giving an incentive of INR 12,500 per hectare, the state will be able to relieve some one million hectares under paddy-wheat rotation to be replaced by alternate crops like pulses and oilseeds.
For the central government it is the bigger question of feeding the country, should the flow of wheat and paddy stop flowing from this machine. However, for Punjab it is a question of ecological survival, of sustaining its natural resources like water and soil in a healthy state. Politically and economically it is also a question of the sheer survival of its farming community. The proposed change in crop patterns for Punjab will save the country an estimated INR 8,976 crore in procurement, handling and storage costs. It is also intended to provide some relief from the high incidence of pests, diseases and a host of ecological problems, like the alarming depletion in the water table, water logging, soil salinity, toxicity and micronutrient deficiency. These are the less-talked about afflictions of the high yielding variety boom, which was once talked about as the engine of food security and the driving force behind farm prosperity.
A reduction in paddy and wheat production by 30 percent is being suggested as the antidote to the current stress on the state´s water resources. Rice is not a traditional crop in arid states like Punjab. Rice fields alone consume some 85 per cent of all freshwater supply. This adds up to a total annual consumption of 44 lakh hectare metres of water. Being a water guzzler, paddy is the key crop being targeted. Undoubtedly, a shift in the cropping pattern will ease the pressure on the already over-stretched groundwater resources in the state.