Abstract

Every sector had significant problems as a result of COVID-19, including the agriculture sector. Punjab had also witnessed some problems faced by farmers in adopting various methods of paddy cultivation during Covid-19. The study was conducted in five agro-climatic zones of Punjab and constituted a sample of 150 respondents for the study. It was found that weeds as regarded as one of the major constraints in direct seeded rice faced by the farmers. More than half of the respondents face problems of poor germination of seeds in direct seeded rice. The majority of the respondents considered that paddy transplanter were difficult to afford due to high cost and also faced constraints with a lack of skilled manpower in mechanical transplanting. In case of paddy sown with conventional transplanting technology, the majority of respondents (90 %) considered that manual labour cost was high during Covid-19 because paddy was cultivated through migrant labour in Punjab which was not available due to lockdown and strict govt. instructions.