Apropos the HT article ‘Beyond the grain: Punjab needs new Green Revolution’ (May 3), it is time to move away from narratives that unfairly malign Punjab’s agriculture and its hardworking farmers. The real conversation must focus on the government’s persistent failure to effectively tackle the sustainability and environmental challenges facing the state’s agricultural system.
For decades, Punjab has been viewed through the narrow lens of the rice-wheat cycle, sustained by MSP and procurement. But this image is outdated. On the ground, farmers are already experimenting. A distinct model of diversification is emerging, clustered around crop suitability and market access: Kinnow belts in the south-west; potato and sugarcane in Doaba; vegetable hubs in peri-urban zones; and pulses and oilseeds in the central districts. The question is not whether Punjab can diversify—it already is—but whether policy will evolve fast enough to scale this transition.
Half-hearted incentives
Over the years, successive governments have introduced diversification incentives of ₹7,000 per acre for maize, about 33% subsidy on Bt cotton seeds ( ₹300/acre), ₹1,500/acre for direct seeded rice (DSR) and indirect support for vegetables and other crops. While these incentives signal intent, they remain largely compensatory and short-lived, offering temporary relief rather than building a durable ecosystem for large-scale diversification.
As long as rice and wheat continue to enjoy assured MSP and procurement, farmers will rationally prefer them for income stability. Diversification cannot scale without comparable assurance for alternative crops. As early as 1985-86, the SS Johl committee had underscored that diversification in Punjab would not take off without extending price assurance beyond rice and wheat, a recommendation that warrants a fresh review by a high-powered committee in the current context.
This need not mean full procurement for crops like maize, cotton, oilseeds or vegetables but it does require a credible framework guaranteeing remunerative prices. Without this, farmers remain exposed to volatile markets where a single price crash can wipe out seasonal income, keeping diversification confined to small experimental pockets rather than enabling a systemic shift.
Recent price crashes in potato, tomato and even maize have reinforced farmers’ fears around diversification. Bumper harvests often coincide with weak demand, pushing prices below production costs and triggering distress sales. Potato growers face unsold stocks despite high storage costs, tomato prices swing wildly and even maize, which is promoted as a paddy alternative, has seen non-remunerative returns without assured support.
Such experiences erode trust in diversification policies and push farmers back toward the relative safety of rice and wheat, where income, though modest, is predictable. The rice-wheat system is also highly mechanised, with significant sunk investments, making farmers hesitant to shift to crops lacking assured returns Therefore, without strong policy backing, farmers will not shift away from these cereal crops at scale.
Debunking collapsed soil narrative
Much of the public discourse on Punjab’s agriculture focuses narrowly on groundwater depletion, soil degradation and pollution, while overlooking a critical reality that the state has consistently achieved some of the highest rice and wheat productivity levels globally. Farmers today harvest around 6-6.5 tonnes of paddy and above 5 tonnes of wheat per hectare, nearly double the ~3.5 tonnes recorded in the 1980s.
Coupled with technological advancement and intensive farm management, Punjab achieved huge gains in ‘crop per drop’ until the 1990s, where rice and wheat water productivity improved significantly but has now stagnated at 2500-2800 litres/kg of rice and 1100-1300 litres/kg of wheat. The biggest challenge today is not just yield but improving water efficiency beyond this plateau.
However, this success has come alongside lopsided policy and decade-old irrigation infrastructure. While paddy area expanded from about 12 lakh hectares in the 1980s to more than 30 lakh hectares today, the canal irrigation system has remained stagnant at around 17- 20 billion cubic metres (BCM) since the ’80s. This system can sustainably support only 5-8 lakh hectares, leaving over 70% of paddy cultivation dependent on groundwater, making depletion inevitable.
At the same time, claims that soils are irreversibly degraded or biologically dead are overstated. Soil organic carbon remains around 0.3-0.5% and the carbon to nitrogen ratio is stable at 8-10, suggesting that soil nitrogen does not accumulate despite high fertiliser use. However, declining organic carbon and indiscriminate application of urea are reducing nutrient-use efficiency, causing micronutrient deficiencies, weakening soil biological processes and accumulating nitrate in groundwater. The issue is not collapse, but declining efficiency in a highly productive system.
Systems approach to transformation
Diversification in Punjab is largely market-driven but poorly supported. Weak value chains, lack of storage and processing infrastructure, absence of price assurance and limited extension services create a high-risk environment for non-cereal crops. As a result, even though diversified crops offer higher returns and better water efficiency, they fail to replace rice at scale.
What Punjab needs is a new and targeted breakthrough in cotton, mustard and pulses crops that once formed the backbone of farming in central and southern districts. Despite slow pace of technological breakthroughs, farmers are already innovating. What is required is a long-term, policy framework that goes beyond temporary incentives. This includes expanding price assurance mechanisms beyond rice and wheat, strengthening value chains, investing in infrastructure and providing risk mitigation tools such as insurance and contract farming.
Equally important is strengthening institutional support such as revitalising canal systems, investing in water storage and completing long-pending infrastructure projects. The transition away from rice-wheat will not be abrupt but gradual. These crops will remain important for national food security, but their dominance can be reduced if viable alternatives are made competitive and less risky.
Punjab does not need disruption, it needs alignment. Farmers have already taken the first steps. It is now for policy to follow.
Choudhary is founder-director of South Asia Biotechnology Centre, Jodhpur. Sandhu is a former deputy director general (crop sciences), ICAR and commissioner, Union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare. Views expressed are personal.
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