Aiming to bring the stubble burning to zero in the state, the Punjab government on Sunday formulated an action plan of Rs 500 crore to provide farmers with crop residue management (CRM) machinery on subsidy and implement other strategies to manage the paddy straw efficiently.
Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian said that the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has invited online applications from the farmers to avail subsidies on the procurement of CRM machines.
The applications can be submitted through online portal agrimachinerypb.com from April 22 to May 12.
Encouraging the farmers to take advantage of the scheme, Khuddian said that the Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann-led Punjab government has been offering a 50 per cent subsidy to individual farmers and an 80 per cent subsidy to farmer groups, cooperative societies and gram panchayats for the purchase of CRM machines.
This initiative aims to make CRM machinery more accessible to farmers, promoting its adoption and ultimately contributing to a cleaner environment, the Minister said.
He added that the subsidy would be available on CRM machinery include Super SMS, Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, Surface Seeder, Smart Seeder, Zero Till Drill, Baler, Rake, Shrub Master or Rotary Slasher, paddy straw chopper or shredder or mulcher, crop reaper and hydraulic reversible mould board plough.
Basant Garg, the Administrative Secretary of Agriculture Department, said that Punjab witnessed significant progress in crop residue management.
The state government distributed 17,600 subsidised CRM machines to individual farmers, cooperative societies, and panchayats during the previous season.
Additionally, 1,331 custom hiring centres were also established to facilitate CRM practices.
These efforts resulted in a 70 per cent decrease in fire incidents during the previous season compared to 2023, with only 10,909 incidents recorded compared to 36,663 in 2023.
