Agri officials start cotton picking with machine

Muktsar, November 22

Officials of the Agriculture Department started cotton picking with a machine at the fields in Baam village here today.

Muktsar Chief Agriculture Officer Baljinder Singh Brar said, “Under the mechanised cotton cultivation, dense sowing of crop is done with extra seed and per acre 28,000 to 32,000 plants are grown with pneumatic planter, while in an ordinary cotton field only 5,000 plants are grown on an acre. The government has provided subsidy to bear the cost of extra seed.”

He added, “Due to high density of plants, the weeds grow less in crop hence it decreases the cost of weed control. Later in the vegetative growth stage of the plant, the growth regulator is sprayed to control the height of plant up to 3.5 ft.”

Muktsar DC Sumeet Jarangal hoped that the new technique would help increase the yield by decreasing the cultivation cost. He added that the state government had imported three such automatic machines to give demonstration in the fields. — TNS