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Abstract
Having witnessed a fast growth, the agriculture in Punjab has reached a
plateau. To sustain even the existing level, the costs are increasing and
natural resources are being depleted due to overuse. This study has
examined the use of certain resources and its impact on the cost of
production. The data have been collected from different primary and
secondary sources. The fast increase in area under rice and wheat appears
to be unsustainable due to the fast decline in water table. Therefore, the
cost of pumping out water with electricity has been going up, shortage of
electric power has resulted in increase in the number of electric and diesel
tubewells, further escalating the cost of production. The replenishment of
soil health due to depleting macro and micronutrients and increased
pesticide-use have also been observed to increase the cost. Thus, the
cost on account of these factors together has gone up by Rs 63/t in wheat
and Rs 189/t in rice. The varietal diversity of wheat has decreased and that
of rice crop has increased during the past two and a half decades. The
policy measures to minimize excessive use of natural resources requires
suitable input pricing, particularly for water resource, improving input-use
efficiency and revamping market forces to encourage diversification of
state agriculture from rice to alternative crops.