Agricultural Sustainability in Punjab: A Way Forward
Sukhwinder Singh ()
Additional contact information
Sukhwinder Singh: Public Health Foundation of India
A chapter in Covid-19 Pandemic and Economic Development, 2021, pp 23-32 from Springer
Abstract:
Abstract Punjab is an agriculturally strategic state of India. However, its agricultural sector is currently passing through a critical phase where the natural resources are depleting, yields are stagnating, and farm incomes are falling. A continued reliance on wheat and rice (paddy) production and overdependence on underground water resources have raised questions about the sustainability of agriculture in Punjab. The current cropping patterns, which are heavily dependent on wheat and rice, are highly intensive with low diversity potentially undermining overall agricultural sustainability of the state. A reduced crop diversity mainly in the kharif season with a focus on rice intensification and a regime of free-of-cost electricity supply to farm sector have had an adverse effect on groundwater resources while an overdose of fertilizers and pesticides and over-capitalized farm machinery have undermined the economic sustainability of Punjab’s farm enterprises. From a policy perspective, crop diversification policies in Punjab need to be more practical and pragmatic providing alternative sets of crops to farmers which can economically complete with wheat and rice. Like Haryana, Punjab government can rationalize rice cultivation and/or disseminate alternative methods of rice cultivation avoiding flood irrigation in the central zone where groundwater depletion rates are very high. In the post COVID-19 phase, Punjab government might consider promoting rural agribusiness, i.e. food processing, fine-tuning the current agricultural marketing systems, and rationalizing the current regime of electricity subsidy to farm sector to improve the overall agricultural sustainability in Punjab.
Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-16-4442-9_2
Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789811644429
DOI: 10.1007/978-981-16-4442-9_2
Access Statistics for this chapter
More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().