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Punjab readies ₹500-cr action plan to check stubble burning
Punjab agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said the department has received 21,511 applications from farmers, cooperative societies, FPOs and panchayats interested in availing subsidies on various crop residue management (CRM) machinery during the 2024 kharif season.
The Punjab agriculture department on Wednesday said that it has prepared a ₹500 crore action plan for providing subsidized machinery and other measures to control stubble burning during the upcoming paddy harvest.
Revealing this here, agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that the department has received as many as 21,511 applications from farmers, cooperative societies, FPOs and panchayats interested in availing subsidies on various crop residue management (CRM) machinery during the 2024 kharif season.
farmers have applied for 63,697 machines, Khudian said in an official statement.
Individual farmers can avail 50% subsidy on the cost of CRM equipment, while an 80% subsidy is for cooperative societies, FPOs, and panchayats limited to a maximum as per the guidelines of the scheme, he added.
Under the scheme, Khuddian said that super SMS, super seeder, surface seeder, smart seeder, happy seeder, paddy straw chopper, shredder, mulcher, hydraulic reversible mould board plough and zero till drill for in-situ management and baler and rake in ex-situ machines are being made available on subsidy.
As many as 1,30,000 CRM machines have been provided to farmers of the state from 2018-19 to 2023, Khudian said. He added that the agriculture department would also launch an information education and communication campaign to educate and train farmers about the available technologies for the management of crop residues as the state government is taking every possible step to address the problem of stubble burning.
