Jalandhar, November 18 With the Department of Agriculture sensitising famers to the stubble burning menace, the zero tillage drill technology has started gaining popularity among the farmers in the district. The district has a total area of 4.25 lakh acre under wheat cultivation and around 2.60 lakh acre has already been sown by the farmers till date. As per the department, around 50,000-acre area has been sown using zero tillage technology, that is likely to reach 1 lakh acre this season. Last year, the wheat area sown using the same technology was only 56,000 acre. Chief Agriculture Officer Nazar Singh said zero drill tillage technology reduces the cost of field preparation and increases the water-holding capacity of the soil. He said in the fields prepared using this technique, the weeds infestation was too much low and further it saves irrigation water up to 10-15% during first irrigation and improves crop yield also. Besides, the fertility of the soil was found improved in fields where stubble management was done with the help of machines. “Last year, 304 happy seeder machines were procured by the farmers but this year, 422 happy seeder and super seeder machines were availed by individual and groups from Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) under in-situ management for crop residue scheme. These machines can sow wheat for 6 to 8 acres per day easily. The cost of these machines is about Rs 2 lakh and the department is providing 50% subsidy to individual farmers and 80% to farmers’ groups,” Singh further added. Agriculture Officer Naresh Gulati said, “Under the zero tillage technology, machines like happy seader, advanced happy seader and newly adopted machine superseeder were being used by the farmers.”

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