The kingdom agriculture government desire to push cotton sowing on approximately 45,000 acres in Fazilka and Muktsar districts as water is possibly to be launched withinside the Sirhind feeder canal on Tuesday. Following a breach withinside the canal at Thandewala village in Muktsar on May 9, water go with the drift changed into stopped for the restore paintings. Muktsar deputy commissioner Vineet Kumar, who inspected the breach webweb page on Monday, stated the restore paintings is sort of over and water can be launched with the aid of using Tuesday evening. “Work to repair the canal changed into initiated with the aid of using the water assets branch on a conflict footing. Repair paintings is withinside the very last degree and the irrigation channel can be operational in some other 24 hours,” he stated.
Sowing of cotton changed into hit in downstream districts of Muktsar and Fazilka because of the non-availability of irrigation facilities. Most components of the 2 districts are canal-fed because the saline groundwater is not worthy for agricultural purposes. Punjab had constant May 15 because the closing date to finish cotton sowing, however it couldn’t materialise because of a scarcity of water. Fazilka leader agriculture officer Resham Singh stated because of erratic irrigation facilities, the district is not likely to obtain the goal to domesticate cotton on 2.fifty eight lakh acres. He stated if water is launched on Tuesday evening, it could take nearly per week to attain all canal-fed villages of Abohar and Khuian Sarvar blocks. Farmers of this semi-arid belt haven’t any choice however to attend and opt for overdue sowing of the coins crop, he added. “To date, cotton has been sown over 2.12 lakh acres and after water is launched, farmers may also begin sowing on some other 25,000 acres after pre-sowing irrigation,” he stated.
Muktsar leader agriculture officer Gurpreet Singh stated towards the goal of 1.25 lakh acres for the 2022-23 kharif season, the district is not likely to pass the one-lakh mark. “In spite of the low productiveness following the purple bollworm infestation, farmers have been endorsed to sow cotton because of report marketplace rates. But bad canal water deliver has hit the sowing goal,” he stated. The kingdom agriculture branch has mooted a plan for additonal surveillance withinside the cotton belt of Lambi and Malout blocks in which overdue sowing is expected. These fields can be susceptible to pest attacks, he added.
