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Punjab: Co-op bank offers subsidised loan on straw mgmt machines
The chief minister has said the state cooperative banks across the state have launched a crop residue management loan scheme
Chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Sunday said farmers can now avail loan from the state cooperative banks for buying crop residue management machines.
Mann said the state cooperative banks across the state have launched a crop residue management loan scheme.
The aim is to make rural credit available easily for farmers to purchase machinery for crop residue management in order to check paddy straw burning, he said in a statement here.
The scheme has been introduced in Chandigarh and 802 branches of the district cooperative banks, said Mann and asked the farmers to avail the benefits of this scheme.
The primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACs) or other entities can avail benefit of 80% subsidy on the purchase of agriculture equipment under the common hiring centre (CHC) scheme.
Likewise, farmers will be entitled for 50% subsidy on the purchase of agriculture implements for crop residue management like balers and superseeders.
Mann said loan will be for five years repayable in 10 half-yearly instalments between June 30 and January 31 annually.
The scheme will be instrumental in encouraging farmers to opt for crop residue management, he said.
Mann said the major thrust is to reduce the amount of pollution generated when stubble is burnt and to encourage more industry-farmer participation in the agri-residue supply chain to support bio-energy plants.
The CM said that power generation units, compressed biogas (CBG) plants and 2G ethanol factories could strengthen their feedstock supply chain and benefit the biofuel industry as a whole from this step.
He said the supply chain will be established through a cluster-based approach in the vicinity of various industries utilising the paddy straw. The supply chain beneficiaries will collect, densify and store the paddy straw at desired locations and will make available the same to various users or industries as per requirement.
