The Modi government has claimed that there will be a drastic reduction in stubble burning cases which means that the Winter Pollution in Delhi is likely to be less severe this year.
Ministry of Agriculture presented their data at the Crop Residue Management on Monday, wherein the number of stubble burning incidents were reported to have been reduced by 41 percent in Utter Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab in 2018 in comparison to 2016.
The government has predicted that the numbers will hence decrease further this year as the ministry has set aside Rs. 1,151.80 crores for combating crop residue. They plan to set up subsidizing farm equipment such as Happy Seeder, Zero Till Seed cum Fertilizer Drill which will be undertaken by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
A total of Rs. 584.33 crores have been released to Punjab, Haryana and Utter Pradesh in the fiscal year of 2018-19. The fund is allocated so that farm machinery will be distributed to individual owners on the basis of custom hiring centers.
Major fall in Stubble burning cases
Surya Pratap Shahi, the Utter Pradesh Agriculture Minister said that the state has seen a great drop in stubble burning cases in 2017 and 2018. He also added that the strict actions taken against farmers to make them avoid stubble burning – including fines have readily helped the cause of reducing the states over Air Pollution levels.
Someone from the agriculture ministry commented that the crop burning cases – which are a major occurrence in Punjab and Haryana still waved around 1,00,200 and 2,836 respectively.
Farm machinery on lease with mobile app
Union Minister of State for Agriculture Parshottam Rupala also launched a multilingual mobile app, CHC Farm Machinery, to help farmers hire anti-stubble machines from custom hiring services located within a 50 km radius of their farms.
