The agrarian state of Haryana is tackling the tough challenge of crop residue by providing farmers subsidies starting from 50 to 80 per cent on gear for its administration and importantly by providing monetary incentive for paddy diversification with various crops.
The paddy season is principally blamed for the farm fires that trigger air pollution in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR) within the winter season.
As per the plan, the state goals to handle 37 lakh tonnes of paddy straw, with nearly one-third of this useful resource being repurposed by the trade.
While an estimated 13.54 lakh metric tonnes of straw is prone to be consumed by main industries, the federal government plans to handle 5 lakh acre of paddy straw with the help of the Pusa Bio Decomposer.
The Haryana authorities says that from 2018-19 to 2021-22, a complete of 41, 331 crop residue administration machines and gear have been made obtainable to particular person farmers with a subsidy of fifty per cent. This was performed to mitigate air pollution in Delhi-NCR attributable to burning of biomass by farmers.
Additionally, 6, 775 customized hiring centres have been established with an 80 per cent subsidy and over Rs 584 crore has been offered as subsidy to farmers.
In 2022-23 as many as 7, 294 farmers bought crop residue administration agricultural equipment with a subsidy of Rs 82 crore. In this fiscal the federal government of India has allotted Rs 300 crore to the state for the implementation of the scheme.
Haryana presently has greater than 80, 000 crop residue administration machines.
The authorities on Friday claimed that satellite tv for pc photos issued by NASA on stubble burning uncovered the obvious discrepancies in claims made by the governments of Delhi and Punjab relating to the discount in farm fires within the area.
A authorities spokesperson advised IANS the satellite tv for pc photos point out a staggering distinction within the variety of lively biomass-burning instances, with Punjab having greater than double the cases as in comparison with Haryana.
These variations actually define Haryana’s efforts in tackling the difficulty, mentioned the spokesperson.
“NASA has exposed the tall claims made by the Delhi and Punjab governments that wrongly implicate Haryana in incidents of stubble burning related to pollution in New Delhi, ” mentioned the spokesperson.
Regarding stubble burning incidents, Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, who believes the success of climate-smart agriculture hinges on collaboration, advised the media that Haryana has fewer instances of biomass burning in comparison with Punjab, which has seen greater than 4, 000 such incidents until date.
He mentioned the federal government is offering monetary incentives to farmers to discourage stubble burning and inspiring the business utilisation of crop residue.
The state provides monetary incentives like Rs 1, 000 per acre for in-situ or ex-situ administration of paddy crop residue, Rs 7, 000 per acre for diversification of paddy space with various crops beneath the ‘Mera Pani, Meri Virasat’ scheme and Rs 4, 000 per acre for the adoption of direct sowing of rice, a viable water-saving various to conventional transplanting strategies.
Also, panchayats within the ‘red zones’ that efficiently obtain the zero-burning goal are rewarded with Rs 1 lakh, whereas villages within the ‘yellow zones’ reaching the zero-burning purpose will obtain Rs 50, 000 as an incentive.
Additionally, transportation fees for bales have been set at Rs 500 per acre, with a most restrict of Rs 15, 000 to help cow shelters.
Between September 15 to October 24 this yr, Punjab registered 2, 306 farm fireplace instances in comparison with 5, 617 instances within the corresponding interval final yr.
Haryana, throughout this era, registered solely 813 instances as in comparison with 1, 360 instances registered in 2022.
In Haryana, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has adopted 77 villages in partnership with corporates, together with Apraava Energy, SBI Card, ONGC and Birlasoft, the place six customized hiring centres with 240 machines have been arrange that are managed by farmers’ cooperatives fashioned by CII.
In 2022, incidents of stubble burning have been decreased considerably in 26 villages in Sirsa district because of venture interventions as lots of of farmers joined the hassle to create a zero-stubble burning motion.
While the main focus of interventions until final yr was on in-situ measures, within the present season village-level ex-situ interventions for the administration of straw are additionally being promoted by CII in Sirsa.
Birlasoft, that’s a part of the $2.9 billion diversified CK Birla Group, has partnered with Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and has been working in villages in Haryana and Punjab to cut back crop residue burning by elevating consciousness about stubble burning and offering farmers with sustainable straw administration options.
Birlasoft’s initiative, ‘Shodhan’ (purification) has, with the assistance of native and company volunteers, lined 100 plus villages and 70, 000 acres in Punjab and Haryana, benefiting 48, 000 households, inside 4 years.
A majority of the goal farmers haven’t gone again to the previous methods of biomass burning, it says.
In a survey carried out by the CII of 342 respondents in this system space, 96 per cent respondents reported higher air high quality.
A complete of 27, 000 tonnes of rice straw was prevented from being burnt whereas practically 25, 000 tonnes of biomass was recycled again into the soil.