E-Paper
Stubble burning: Punjab government to distribute 28,000 agro-machines to farmers by September
The agriculture department has initiated a drive to provide more than 28,000 agro-machines to farmers with a subsidy component of Rs.278 crore.
With the view to make Punjab a ‘zero stubble burning zone’, the agriculture department has initiated a drive to provide more than 28,000 agro-machines to farmers with a subsidy component of Rs.278 crore during the current fiscal under first phase of in-situ management of paddy residue.
Chief agricultural officer, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Gurbaksh Singh, said that subsidy ranging from 50-80 per cent is being provided to farmers under the scheme.80%subsidy on these machines will be provided to cooperative societies and farmers’ groups while 50 %to individual farmers. The state government has focused to deliver state-of-the-art machines, including super SMS, happy seeder, paddy straw chopper/shredder/mulcher, hydraulic reversible mould board (RMB) plough and zero till drill to tackle stubble burning.
Gurbaksh Singh said the agricultural department has received 108 applications, including 21 from farmers’ group of Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar district. Last year, the district has delivered a total of 196 agricultural equipments and had given a subsidy of Rs.1.25 crore on these machines, he added.
He said in the first phase, around 15,000 machines will be given to individual farmers in Punjab on 50 per cent subsidy while another 13,000 agro-machines will be provided to around 2,200 farmers groups/primary agriculture cooperative societies (PACS) at a subsidy of 80 per cent to establish farm machinery banks (FMBs) to be used as custom hiring centres. He said the agriculture department will complete the task of distribution of these machines to farmers by September.
Besides ahead of the paddy season, mass awareness campaign was initiated to educate farmers about the ill-effects of paddy straw burning. The awareness campaign was primarily aimed at imparting training to farmers and practical demonstration of equipments for in-situ management of crop residue.
“The farmers are being urged to make optimum use of subsidised agro-machinery to do away the practice of stubble burning, thereby ensuring health and hygiene of the people besides preserving the environment of the state,” he added.
During 2018-19, a total of 28,609 machines were provided to individual farmers on 50 per cent subsidy, out of which, 12,075 machines were provided to individual farmers and remaining 16,534 machines to cooperative societies and farmers group on 80 per cent subsidy.
He said the area under paddy cultivation has also seen a decline after concerted efforts were made to aware farmers about the consequences of depleting water table.
Notably, the area under paddy has been brought down from 31.03 lakh hectares to 30 lakh hectares this year in Punjab. After harvesting, about 20 million tonnes of paddy straw is expected to be left in the fields to be managed by farmers before sowing the next Rabi crops.
Farmers and farmers’ groups of the district have shown overwhelming response to get hi-tech machines under in-situ management for crop residue scheme this year. The agriculture and farmers’ welfare department has received 270 applications from the farmers against 43 in the previous paddy season, nearly seven-time increase.
Deputy commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said to ensure that farmers do not burn paddy straw, the state government has started this scheme where the subsidy is given to farmers on farm machineries used for managing paddy straw.
