Gurbakhshish Singh, a farmer from Bimbar near Nabha town in Punjab said, “This year temperatures have started rising in February unlike last year when they had soared in March. We did not get enough rainfall this year. All that a farmer can do now is to increase the frequency of irrigation and spray potassium nitrate.”
Majority of the wheat farms in Punjab are irrigated by tube wells, which need power supply to run the pumps.
Gurvinder Singh, director (agriculture, Punjab confirmed the increase in power demand. “Due to increase in heat, the demand for electricity for irrigation has gone up.”
The agriculture department has advised farmers to take up give light irrigation. “We have also advised farmers to spray potassium nitrate on the crop to increase its heat tolerance,” said Singh.
Farmers have reported power cuts from past two weeks. Bhupinder Singh Mann, chairman, All India Kisan Co-ordination Committee said, “The temperatures are higher than normal, which has forced farmers to increase the irrigation frequency. However, they are not getting electricity as per the commitment of the government of supply electricity for 8 hours everyday. During past two weeks, since the demand for power has increased, many a times the power supply is available for just 4 – 6 hours. Sometimes there is no power supply for one or two days.”
Mann said that the early increase in temperature will reduce the formation of number of grains per pod of wheat. “The grain buds at the top of the pod are yet to be formed. Due to high temperatures which lead to early maturity, these grain buds will not form now,” said Mann.