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Punjab to hypothecate new subsidised CRM machines
All the 15,000 machines to be distributed this season will be linked to banks for 5 years to ensure they are not lost, misplaced, or sold
The Punjab agriculture department has decided to introduce five-year financing for crop residue management (CRM) machines, which will be provided to farmers on a subsidy hypothecated to banks for in-situ stubble management, especially during the paddy harvest season. The machines will be hypothecated to banks to ensure they are not lost, misplaced, or sold.
The subsidy amount on the machines will be transferred to the banks instead of the farmers, as was practised earlier. The machines will be hypothecated by the banks, fixing farmers’ responsibility to preserve the machines for at least five years during the time frame when they are paying instalments for the machines.
The government offers a subsidy of 30% to 80% on the machines to individual farmers, the custom hiring centres, and village panchayats.
The move comes after a 2022 physical verification survey found that the 11,000 to 40,000 subsidised machines of the total 1.5 lakh distributed to farmers were either missing or non-functional, leading to allegations of a scam.
A pilot was conducted in the last season by giving some machines through financing, and in the upcoming season, all 15,000 machines proposed to be given to the farmers for CRM would be hypothecated through the banks. An outlay for the project is ₹500 crore
“All systems are in place, and tie-ups with the banks have been finalised. We are adopting the new system in the paddy harvest season,” said an official in the state agriculture directorate, requesting anonymity.
The move has drawn sharp criticism from the farmers’ bodies, who claimed that the government is trying to bind the cultivators.
“The scheme should be rejected, and the subsidy should be given to the farmers. We condemn the scheme because with the system of financing the machines, the government is trying to bind the farmer who is already under tremendous stress due to debt,” said Jagmohan Singh of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Dakounda.
Missing machines
Since the launch of this centrally sponsored scheme in 2018, over 1.5 lakh SRM machines were distributed, and the conservation of the machines remained a concern for the state authorities. The physical verification of CRM machines in 2022 revealed that over 11,000 to 40,000 subsidised machines were either missing or non-functional, leading to allegations of a ₹150 crore scam. The survey also revealed that nearly 40,000 (one-fourth) are no longer in use.
Between 2018 and 2025, Punjab spent between ₹175 crore and ₹375 crore annually on crop residue management. Funding was entirely borne by the Centre until 2022, after which it shifted to a 60:40 Centre-state sharing pattern.
The survey also found that many machines existed only on paper or were rendered unusable. A verification of 79,295 machines showed 11,275 were missing. Shortages were noted in districts Faridkot, Ferozepur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Fazilka, Bathinda, Moga, and Patiala.
An inquiry into the matter was initiated by the Centre’s enforcement directorate, after which the vigilance bureau took over, and later investigations were conducted by an audit team of the state’s finance department for nearly three months.
Effort to curb farm fires
CRM machines, such as happy seeders, mulchers, reapers, shredders, bailers, super seeders, reverse ploughs, etc., are tractor-mounted implements used to manage paddy straw without burning, helping reduce air pollution and improve soil health.
“We consider five years as the life of each machine, after which it is declared redundant. Farmers can use these machines further, but the department will not ask for the whereabouts,” said an official of the state agriculture department. Also, rapid technological upgrades have rendered many older models obsolete, he added.
Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed as a major contributor to severe air pollution in the national capital region during October and November, when farmers burn residue to quickly prepare fields for the wheat crop due to a narrow sowing window.
Every year, paddy is cultivated over nearly 30 lakh hectares in Punjab, generating around 190 lakh tonnes of straw. Burning of this residue during the onset of winter leads to dense smog over northern India, posing serious health and environmental risks.
Despite the subsidy outlay of ₹2,229 crore since 2018, Punjab has struggled to eliminate farm fires as mandated by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM). While stubble fire incidents during the 2025 kharif season declined to 5,114, almost half of the 10,909 cases reported in 2024, the numbers remain significant. In earlier years, 36,663 cases were reported in 2023 and 49,922 in 2022.
