Wetland authority to ban summer paddy cultivation to save groundwater -Keshav Agrawal

-The Times of India

PILIBHIT: Raising concern over depleting groundwater, State Wetland Authority (SWA) has decided to ban the cultivation of summer paddy that survives only on the groundwater.

 

According to an estimate of the state agriculture department, summer paddy — the transplantation of which has already been started — is produced in around 3.5 lakh hectares in more than 20 districts of western UP stretched up to the Tarai region.

The decision was taken by SWA chief executive officer Vibhash Ranjan on World Water Day — under which the United Nations promotes sustainable management of freshwater resources at global level — on Friday.

“The cropping pattern in the state needs to be brought under regulation in phased-manner, and to begin with we will motivate the farmers not to grow summer paddy. As the crop is transplanted in March for harvesting in June, before the arrival of monsoon, the irrigation of this crop contributes to rapid depletion of groundwater,” said Ranjan.

“The protection and conservation of 26,000 wetlands having area 2.5 hectare or above and 97,000 water bodies of smaller size, a project undertaken by SWA to recharge groundwater, will not succeed unless there is a ban on the production of summer paddy,” Ranjan explained.

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