Stubble Burning: Due to stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, the air of Delhi-NCR is becoming ‘poisonous’. Meanwhile, on Saturday (October 26), the Center advised Punjab and Haryana to make a strategic plan for all essential commodities in the stubble burning hotspot districts in the coming days and make continuous efforts to handle the worsening situation.
The issue was discussed during an inter-ministerial meeting at Krishi Bhawan. Where officials expressed apprehension that incidents of stubble burning may increase in the next few days with the pace of harvesting work in both Punjab and Haryana. However, this time a decrease in the incidents of stubble burning has been recorded in both the states so far as compared to last year. It is being told that the slow pace of harvest is related to weak procurement operations in Punjab. Due to which mill owners are facing issues of storage and quality of paddy.
Union Agriculture Minister attended the meeting virtually
Every year after Diwali, firecrackers are also responsible for the poor air quality of Delhi and other states. Therefore, the participants also discussed ways to deal with it by taking proactive measures and strictly following the Supreme Court order by creating public awareness.
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who participated virtually in the meeting, said that compared to the same period in 2023, there has been a 35% reduction in the incidents of stubble burning in Punjab and 21% in Haryana, but in-situ and ex-situ burning of paddy stubble. -There is a need to further reduce the number by making more efforts for in-situ management. He also said that due to everyone’s efforts, incidents of stubble burning have reduced by 51% compared to 2017 and appealed to the states to promote bio-decomposers in mission mode.
Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi gave suggestion in the meeting
During the meeting, Agriculture Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi gave a detailed presentation on how to deal with the issue of stubble burning. He said that so far this year, the Center has released Rs 150 crore to Punjab, Rs 75 crore to Haryana, Rs 50 crore to UP and more than Rs 8 crore to ‘Krishi Vigyan Kendras’ for paddy straw management, out of which The total earmarked for this purpose for 2024-25 is Rs 600 crore.
Farmers made a plan to deal with the problem of stubble
Haryana officials said that farmers in the state are being provided with ex-situ/in-situ management of biomass and crop diversification to tackle the problem. Punjab has promised to manage 11.5 million tonnes of paddy straw through in-situ crop residue management using crop residue management (CRM) machines and the rest through ex-situ methods.
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