‘Steps to check stubble-burning economically not viable’

Gurbaxpuri

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Tarn Taran, October 28

Despite the best efforts of the administration to popularise the new methods of decomposing and mulching the paddy straw in the field while sowing wheat crop, the Agriculture Department has not achieved much success as was expected.

A limited number of farmers have adopted this method and over 90% farmers are still adopting the traditional way of sowing wheat.

There are a number of farmers who are decomposing and mulching the paddy straw as they claim that it is the method to increase the yield and the input too gets decreased. Tarsem Singh, a farmer of Plasaur village, said he had been sowing wheat crop with the happy seeder and with the mulching paddy straw he was getting much yield.

Though the agriculture department has made many suggestions to check the practice of burning paddy straw, farmers in unison have called them practically unviable as it would only entail extra economic burden on them. Officials of the agriculture department have said that farmers must come forward to save the environment by not burning the paddy straw. They also said that there is a provision to cut the paddy straw and tie these in bundles for sale to dairy farmers or the mills as it is used for animal fodder. The department pointed out that paddy straw is also purchased by wine and sugar mills and farmers can do this to increase their income.

Pargat Singh and Santokh Singh, farmers from Aladinpur village, said here on Friday that the suggestions made by the department are not viable. The farmers said that it costs Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300 to cut the paddy straw twice as one-time cutting is not enough as it creates problems in sowing wheat crop. They were not ready adopt the method of decomposing and mulching the as they said that this way the crops is infected with deceases son as sect are infected easily to the wheat crop .

The farmers said that after cutting the straw, giving it the shape of a bundle to sell it in the market costs Rs 2,500 to Rs 3,000 per acre extra which increases the input cost. The farmers also said that there were no takers for the straw as the dairy farmers, Gujjars, purchased a meagre part of it and preferred to take it for free.

Farmer Dilbag Singh, a former Sarpanch of Jati Umra village, said acting as per the instructions of the department has put extra burden of an estimated Rs 4,000 per acre on farmers. The government gives no incentive for it. The farmers said that the total input cost is about Rs 15,000 — from sowing to taking the crop to the market — and all this does not fetch much income to the farmers. Burning paddy straw is easier and saves time to which the farmers give preference which helps sow wheat crop in time, they said.

The farmers said that the agriculture department should act to help them. They also suggested that the machinery to be used for cutting and making the bundles of straw should be given to the farmers free of cost. The farmers stressed that it is better to use chemicals to destroy the paddy straw. They said that decomposing and mulching too is not practicable as these methods incease the time window too.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Sandeep Kumar said with steps being taken by the administration, 1,174 cases of paddy straw burning have come to notice till date (October 27). The DC said that there are 100 hot spots in the district and to impose a check, village-level committees have been formed to check paddy straw burning. The DC said that the administration was doing its best to minimize the burning of paddy straw.