Under pressure to check farm fires, Punjab sets action plan in motion
Punjab's agriculture department is delivering 21,000 subsidized CRM machines, worth ₹500 crore, to farmers for stubble management ahead of the kharif season.
In a bid to check stubble burning and air pollution, the Punjab agriculture department has started delivering subsidised crop residue management (CRM) machines to farmers ahead of the upcoming kharif harvest season expected to begin from October 1.
The state government has fixed a target of giving 21,000 CRM machines at a total subsidy of ₹500 crore to farmers this season. Of these, 4,000 machines used in in-situ and ex-situ management of stubble have already been delivered, people familiar with the development said.
Ex-situ management involves lifting the stubble from the fields and supplying it to stubble-based industries to be used as an alternative fuel and in-situ management (mixing stubble in the soil) is a method of using crop residues in the rice field to improve soil quality and reduce environmental issues of paddy stubble, focus of which now is also towards ex-situ management.
To give a big push to the ex-situ management, the state government is facilitating industrial houses and entrepreneurs to import big bailers to collect paddy stubble on a large scale and use it as fuel in boilers.
For this, ₹20 crore has been set aside as subsidy. The state agriculture department has started the process to hand over big bailers to entrepreneurs, said officials privy to the matter, adding that four women entrepreneurs have also shown interest to buy subsidised bailers.
“We have started early delivery of CRM machines so that these are used to the optimum,” said Punjab agriculture director Jaswant Singh.
He added 65% subsidy is offered on big bailers that cost between ₹1 and ₹1.5 crore and are being imported from Germany, Spain and Holland. The Union agriculture ministry has sanctioned an outlay of ₹500 crore for giving subsidised machines for in-situ and ex-situ management of paddy stubble. Of the total outlay, the state government would contribute ₹200 crore (40%).
Big bailers are given on subsidy with conditions to collect 3,000 to 4,500 tonnes of paddy stubble. Each big bailer is targeted to cover 1,000 acres in a procurement season, officials familiar with the development said.
In October and November every year, farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue as the window between paddy harvesting and sowing of the next crop is short. Despite the common perception that stubble burning is a major reason behind in alarming spike in air pollution levels in the National Capital Region, National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently had said that there has been no scientific claim that farm fires in Punjab contribute to air pollution in Delhi.
In Punjab, paddy is grown over 3 million hectares (7.5 million acres), which generates around 19-20 million tonnes of the foodgrain and 22 million tonnes of stubble.
About 60% (12 million tonnes) of the stubble is managed through in-situ and ex-situ techniques — mixed in the soil or used as fuel in the industry — while the remaining 10 million tonnes is set ablaze leading to severe health and environment hazards.
Since 2018, the Centre has been funding crop residue management programme in Punjab. Between 2018 and 2022, around ₹1,370 crores were sanctioned for the state as 100% grant. But despite the huge amount, the impact has not been as desired as stubble fires continue to rage from the fields in the state.
In the last season, ₹350 crore was sanctioned, with the changed condition that Punjab will contribute 40% ( ₹140 crore) while the rest ( ₹210 crore) will be the Centre’s share.
The machines to be given to farmers also include super straw management system to be attached with harvest combines, happy seeders or smart seeders, paddy straw choppers and shredders, mulchers, hydraulic reversible ploughs, super seeders, zero till drills, balers, rakes, shrubmaster, crop reapers (tractor mounted or self-propelled) and self-propelled reapers-cum-binders. Among all in-situ machines smart seeder is hot favourite among the farmers.