With paddy sowing being completed in the Kharif season, Punjab recorded around a 2 percent year-on-year decline in the total area under paddy to 30.84 lakh hectares. ?

Last year, the total area under paddy was 31.41 lakh hectares in the state.

"The area under paddy this season stood at 30.84 lakh hectares," a senior official of the Punjab agriculture department said here.

The area under basmati paddy this season was expected to be around 4.60 lakh hectares, the official added.

The state received a low response for the direct seeding of rice technique, with just 82,000 hectares of the area being covered under this method as compared to the target of 12 lakh hectares in the Kharif sowing season.

The area under the DSR technique fell way short of the target despite a push by the Bhagwant Mann-led government.

The farmers had primarily blamed insufficient electricity for irrigating fields in May for sowing paddy with the DSR method.

Under the DSR technique,?paddy seeds are drilled into the field with the help of a machine that does seeding of rice and spray of herbicide simultaneously.

According to the traditional method, first young paddy plants are raised by farmers in nurseries and then these plants are uprooted and transplanted in a puddled field.

The DSR method needs far less water for irrigation, improves percolation, reduces dependence on farm labor and improves soil health, thus enhancing the yield of both paddy and wheat by 5-10 percent.

It also helps in saving nearly about 15-20 percent of water compared to the conventional puddling method.

The state government had announced Rs 1,500 per acre for farmers who opt for the DSR technique.

(Inputs from PTI)