Land of Five Tears

• Punjab is India’s biggest agricultural success story, after the green revolution of the mid-’60s. From 3.39 million tonnes of foodgrains in 1965-66, Punjab produced 21.6 million tonnes in 1996-97.
  The nineties have seen an annual increase in Punjab’s real per capita rural income of a mere 0.9 per cent. That’s less than the national average, for the first time since the green revolution. During the pre -vious two decades, it grew at 2-2.5 per cent.
• The state enjoys the highest level of farm mechanisation among Indian states. There’s one tractor for every 11 hectares of land. The national average: one tractor per 92 hectares. Over the last 15 years, the state has been wit -nessing a mere 2.25 per cent increase in wheat productivity. While rice productivity has actu -ally been declining by 0.4 per cent.
• One hectare of land in Punjab yields 42.35 quintals of wheat, while the country’s average stands at 26.71 quintals. In sugarcane, Punjab’s yield is 63.82 quintals a hectare; the national average: 56.51 quintals.

An astounding 47 per cent of the farming population—which owns less than twohectares of land—has an annual takehome income lower than that of an average urbanunskilled worker.

WELCOME to the country’s best-kept secret: the decline of the state known as thegranary of India. The Punjab agricultural sector is facing a serious crisis which hasramifications far beyond that state. It could ultimately have repercussions on nothingless than the country’s food security.

The immensity of the crisis becomes evident when you come across thecommon Punjab farmer. Meet any of the 1,500 inhabitants of Laddi village in the southerndistrict of Sangrur; they’re in no mood to gloat over the state’s achievements.Among them is 27-year-old Parkat Singh. Last year, this wheat and rice farmer took a Rs40,000 loan at a steep 25 per cent interest rate to buy an underground pipe and a 7.5horse power engine for his tubewell. This, after he junked his 5 hp engine.

Parkat had no other option. "Most people in our rice-growingvillage rely on under-groundwater for irrigation. But with the water table plummeting bythe day, a 5 hp pump just didn’t do the job," says he. Laddi villagers estimatethe water table in their fields to have sunk to as much as 16-17 metres below ground. Iftheir guesstimates are correct, it’s been declining at the rate of 1 metre everyyear. While the rest of Punjab isn’t all that badly off, the fall in the water tablein central Punjab—the state’s chief rice-growing area (and remember, rice needsmore water than most other crops)—is discernible. The districts of Ludhiana,Kap-urthala, Amritsar, and Jalandhar have witnessed an average annual 23 cm fall in theirwater table over the last 15 years.

Further west lies Muktsar district, the heart of Punjab’s cottonbelt. Here, the 400 landowners of Enakhera village would probably be envious of Parkat.For, they face entirely the opposite problem. Says 75-year old Gurbaksh Singh:"Cotton doesn’t need all that much water. But in our village the water table isprobably at a level of around 3 metres below ground. Till about 20 years ago, it was inthe range of 15 metres."

People are suffering. Just ask 35-year-old Satpal Singh, who owns 14 ha of land:"This year I got a yield of only two quintals of cotton per ha. Till a few yearsback, I was managing four to five quintals." But then Satpal Singh has it better thanothers in his village. Of the 4,000 acres of land owned by the villagers of Enakhera, thesoil in 1,000 acres has gone saline, and with the groundwater table rising, the brackishunderground water makes any sort of farming unsuitable.

Waterlogging isn’t the only problem the cotton farmers are facing."In this kharif season, we sprayed 15 rounds of insecticide on our cotton crop. Weusually do about 5-6 sprays. Despite this, we managed a yield of only about three quintalsa hectare, while we usually get nine. The American bollworm has developed an immunity tothe pesticide we spray," says Bhagwant Singh of Sangrur’s Ghulas village.

So what do these farmers’ sorry tales portend? Is Punjab about totake a big tumble off its farming pedestal? And eventually threaten India’s foodsecurity? That would probably be jumping the gun. But one would do well to note that oncea peak has been climbed, the only way to go is down.

Has Punjab peaked out?: "Wheat and rice occupy 69 per cent of the grosscropped area of the state. And in both, Punjab has realised 75 per cent of their potentialyield. Increasing it any more than this requires extremely high investments in infrastruc