The Times Of India – Online

To take care of the declining water table and encourage farmers to move away from the water-guzzling paddy, the Haryana government has set a target to bring two-lakh acres of land under the crop diversification scheme, “Mera Pani Meri Virasat.” Farmers can switch to crops that require less water like maize, pulses (urad dal, arhar dal, Moong, moth, Soyabin, Guar), til, cotton, groundnut, castor, kharif onion and all Kharif fodder. However, the government dropped Bajra crop from the scheme this season. Under the scheme, an incentive of Rs 7,000 per acre will be given to farmers for making the switch from paddy.

The Indian Express – Online

Has Punjab been able to reduce five lakh hectares (12.35 lakh acres) under water-guzzling paddy (non-basmati) and shift it to other crops in the last two years? Despite Punjab Agriculture Department repeatedly claiming to have done so and CM’s office relying on the same figures in its statements, data from the office of the Director of Land Records, Punjab (Revenue Department), does not support this tall claim. While Agriculture Department has been claiming that area under paddy came down from 25.92 lakh hectares (LHS) in 2018-2019 to 20.86 LHS in 2020-21, the state’s Land Records Department claims that in 2020-21 area under paddy rice was 27.43 LHS, which is in fact highest ever in ...