Abstract
Rice production in Punjab has increased 23 times in the past seven decades, mainly due to increased grain yield rather than increased planting area. This increase has come from the development of high-yielding varieties and improved crop management practices, such as optimum transplanting time, nitrogen fertilization, improved weed and irrigation management. However, sustainability of rice cultivation in Punjab is at risk due to receding water table and degradation of natural resource base. As the population of India rises, it will pose more pressure on Punjab to produce more rice (about 20%) by 2030 to meet the domestic needs, due to less arable area, less water, global climate change, labour shortage and increasing consumer demand for high quality rice (which often comes from low yielding varieties). The major problems confronting rice production in Punjab are excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, receding water table, degradation of soil health, and oversimplified crop management. Despite these challenges, good research strategy can lead to increase in rice production in Punjab. These include the development of new varieties with high yield potential, resilience to climate change and tolerance to major abiotic stresses such as drought and heat, and the establishment of integrated crop management and new crop establishment method, namely direct seeded rice. Key words: Rice sustainability, Punjab, North-western Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), rice productivity, food security.
Highlights
Rice is the staple food crop for more than 70% of Indian people and is the main crop during rainy season in transIndo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), including Punjab (Prasad and Nagarajan, 2004)
Aromatic varieties of rice are generally grown in North Western part of Punjab, as the climate is very congenial for raising fine quality of basmati rice
Rice-wheat systems on permanent beds have been intensively researched in Punjab, India and the results showed that there was no yield advantage of growing crops on beds as compared to flats, but there was little advantage in water savings (Humphreys et al, 2008; Kukal et al, 2008; YadvinderSingh et al, 2008, 2009)
Summary
Rice is the staple food crop for more than 70% of Indian people and is the main crop during rainy season in transIndo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), including Punjab (Prasad and Nagarajan, 2004). Aromatic varieties of rice are generally grown in North Western part of Punjab, as the climate is very congenial for raising fine quality of basmati rice. Another important feature of rice is that it is grown following flood irrigation (Hira, 2009). Rice demand in India will continue to increase as a result of burgeoning population pressure and increasing of urbanization area. It further gets complicated with the change in socio-economic and physical environment related to rice production in Punjab.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
