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Plans to bring down farm fires by 50% in next kharif season, says Punjab agriculture minister
The minister said the farm fire cases reduced to 36,623 in 2023 from 49,922 incidents in 2022, reflecting a dip of 26%
Agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, on Wednesday, said that the state government has set a target of the target to bring down the crop residue burning cases to 50% in the upcoming kharif harvest season in the October-November months, from what it was in the kharif harvest last year.
He said this while addressing a one-day workshop-cum-training on “space-based technology for monitoring stubble burning under Agro-geo-informatics” organised by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC), at Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Public Administration.
He said that nearly 23,000 crop residue management (CRM) machines have been given to the state farmers on subsidy in the last year, and the stubble burning incidents have reduced to 36,623 in 2023 from 49,922 incidents in 2022, reflecting a dip of 26%.
Khudian said that pollution is a vast issue, and holding only farmers responsible for the same would not help, as they are also victims of uncontrolled pollution. “Everyone should come together and find a solution to save the environment for our future generations,” he suggested.
Special chief secretary (development) KAP Sinha said that the state government is launching a CRM campaign this year in advance to contain the fire incidents more effectively.
Sinha added that the capacity of in-situ and ex-situ management of the paddy residue will also be increased in hot-spot areas. Director PRSC Dr Brihendra Pateriya suggested a synergy among the department of agriculture, NGOs, academia, industry and farmers to tackle the menace of paddy straw burning.
