Manwinder SINGH, Vijay KUMAR and S.S. SNADHU
Punjab is principally an agricultural state with 70 of the population depending on agriculture. During the last four decades there have been major achievements in this direction since all the energies of Center and State Governments were directed towards this sector. This included increasing water resources (surface and groundwater), improvement in seeds and application of higher quantity of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides. As a result total area under cultivation, irrigated area and ultimately the food grain production increased tremendously. It rose from 2.0 metric tons in 1950-51 to about 25.21 metric tons in 1999-2000. As the canal water supply was limite, the grater reliance was placed on groundwater by installing uncontrolled number of tube wells. The situation got further aggravated by the often...