Amid talk of MSP guarantee and Punjab’s wheat-paddy cropping, experts feel that the state must follow cropping pattern as per its agro-climatic and soil conditions to protect the environment and increase farmers’ income.
What are the Agro-climatic zones in Punjab?
According to Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), Ludhiana, there are 6 agro-climatic zones in Punjab which include
Sub-Mountain Undulating Region
Undulating Plain Region (UPR)
Central Plain Region (CPR)
Western Plain Region (WPR)
Western Region (WR)
Flood Plain Region (FPR)
These regions have rainfall variations from 165 mm to 2000 mm annually and climate from humid to cold-arid to arid and extreme arid.
The variations in soil range from hill soils, tarai, brown hill, alluvial to desert.
How were the zones classified?
In Zone 1 and 2, district like Pathnakot, Ropar, Mohali, Gurdaspur, and Hoshiarpur are included.
The temperatures are cold, humid to sub-humid, and semi-arid to humid and the rainfall varies between 165 mm to over 1000 mm.
The soil of these areas is suitable to grow vegetables, wheat, maize, basmati sugarcane, jowar, bajra, barley etc.
Growing paddy here is not suitable because it requires continuous standing water for days which makes maize practically a default crop for farmers.
In Zone 3 districts like Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Fatehgarh Sahib, Patiala and Sangrur are included.
In Amritsar and Gurdaspur areas, there is some area which is highly suitable for growing basmati whose aroma is unique which cannot be found in any part of the state.
In Zone 4, Ferozepur, Moga, Barnala, and Faridkot are the districts included and are suitable for cotton growing and mustard.
Zone 5, Mukatsar, Fazilka, Bathinda and Mansa are included.
In Zone 6, the parts of various districts along with Beas, Sutlej, Ravi, Ghaggar rivers are included which are the flood-prone.
The state has a flood plain region which is also called Bet area and it has homogenous climatic conditions.
In these zones all agro-climatic conditions, rainfall pattern, distribution, soil texture are taken into account to have a suitable cropping pattern.
What is the plan ahead?
The over usage of fertilisers and over exploitation of ground water for decades need for research and development work for modifying the cropping pattern.
The government wants to divide the whole state into zones according to the soil fertility and the respective suitable produce and for that a vision document is being prepared which will be adopted in the state to bring good reforms in the agriculture sector of the state.
