Management of paddy straw, which has become the biggest environmental problem in Punjab, has started changing the picture of the state. Though the state is yet to get rid of this problem completely, but the aware farmers of the state have started making alternative use of stubble instead of burning it.
Seeing its bad effects on the environment, Amarjeet Singh, a farmer who grows crops on more than 100 acres of land, instead of burning the stubble, is selling it to a nearby factory which converts it into fuel. He along with some other farmers give machines like Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, Plow, Mulcher to prevent polluting the environment.
Avtar Singh of Theri village in Mohali is managing the paddy with the help of baler along with three other farmers. About 500 growers in the area are handling 2,000 tonnes of crop residue with this machine. At the same time, progressive farmer Avtar Singh collects stubble from farmers’ fields in four districts of Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali, Rupnagar and Moga.
Avtar Singh told that he is selling the stubble to a yarn factory in Derabassi and a power generating company in Ferozepur, which is making a profit. Avtar Singh used to cultivate 75 acres earlier but later he reduced the area under cultivation to 25 acres to focus on the management of stubble of other farmers.
Avtar Singh has two balers besides a rake and a tractor trolley. Paddy stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is one of the main reasons behind the alarming rise in air pollution levels in Delhi and adjoining areas in October and November. Since the time for wheat after harvesting paddy is very short, farmers set their fields on fire to remove the stubble quickly.
Statistics show that Punjab produces about 180 lakh tonnes of stubble annually. In spite of several measures taken to check stubble burning for the past several years, incidents of farm fires are still continuing in Punjab. According to the information, 71,304 incidents of stubble burning have been registered in the state in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019 and 50,590 in 2018. Several districts including Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda and Amritsar have witnessed large number of stubble burning incidents.
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