It’s a race against time to meet the paddy stubble burning challenge. The harvest season is round the corner and the state and central governments are working to promote agricultural mechanisation for in-situ management of crop residue in Punjab. For the first time, 40% of the 74 lakh acres under paddy cultivation in the state will have machines extracting the stubble.
The Centre approved a Rs 1,151-crore scheme in March to promote stubble management though cutting and spreading it on the field or incorporating it into the soil as opposed to burning. Of the amount, to be spent in 2018-19 and 2019-20, Rs 695 crore was earmarked for Punjab and the remaining for Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
A major part of the amount sanctioned to tackle stubble burning is being spent on machines to farmers at subsidised rates.
Read more of this in a report by Gurpreet Singh NIbber published in Hindustan Times....
