Chandigarh, June 26 (Press Ki Taquat Bureau)
In a bid to bring stubble burning cases to zero in the state as per directions of Chief Minister S. Bhagwant Singh Mann, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare department has laid out an action plan of Rs.500 crore for providing machinery and other measures during the paddy harvest season 2024.
Revealing this here today, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian informed that the department has received as many as 21,511 applications from farmers, cooperative societies, FPOs and panchayats interested in availing subsidies on various crop residue management (CRM) machinery during the kharif season 2024 and farmers have applied for 63,697 machines. Individual farmers can avail 50 per cent subsidy on the cost of CRM equipment, while, 80 per cent subsidy is for cooperative societies, FPOs, panchayats limited to a maximum as per the guidelines of the scheme, he added.
Under the scheme, he said that super SMS, super seeder, surface seeder, smart seeder, happy seeder, paddy straw chopper, shredder, mulcher, hydraulic reversible mould board plough and zero till drill for in-situ management and baler and rake in ex-situ machines are being made available on subsidy.
As many as 1,30,000 CRM machines have been provided to farmers of the state from 2018-19 to 2023, S. Gurmeet Singh Khudian informed while adding that the Agriculture department would also launch an information education and communication campaign to educate and train farmers about the available technologies for the management of crop residues as the state government is taking every possible step to address the problem of stubble burning.
The Agriculture Minister also asked the department officials to ensure transparency in the entire process and strict action will be taken against violation of rules and regulations.
