Rs 20 bottle vs costly machines

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 12

The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare had sent a letter to the Agriculture Departments of Haryana and Punjab around six months ago telling them about the low-cost waste decomposer which is only available at Rs 20. It decomposes the waste (paddy straw) which will tackle the menace of stubble burning.

The Agriculture Department, however, has been dismissing the pocket-friendly alternative to stubble burning. On the one hand, the ministry has asked the departments to look at the usage of waste decomposer solution, the government, on the other hand, is asking farmers to take machines on subsidy as an alternative to paddy stubble burning.

Jasbir Singh, Director, Agriculture, Punjab, said waste decomposer was not successful yet, claiming that it was not a viable solution.

“Punjab Agriculture University has also performed a test of the same. We, however, want the stubble burning to get stopped, by any means,” the director said.

The letter reads: “In Punjab and Haryana, paddy crop residue burning is a serious and emerging cause of increasing pollution in the entire Northern region. In this regard, the National Centre of Organic Farming has developed a ‘waste decomposer’ and it has been used to decompose the crop residue and wastes into compost by many farmers across the country.”

The letter further reads that to tackle the paddy crop residue as well as organic waste burning, a simple technique has been developed by the centre wherein even before harvesting of the paddy crop, 200 litres of waste decomposer solution can be used per acre and then after paddy harvesting, the straw had to be put beneath the soil with the help of a rotavator. Within 20-25 days, the stubble will automatically be decomposed in the field without hampering the new wheat crop sown in the field. “Its regular spray gives excellent result on the crop growth, maturity in time,” it further reads.

The Director of the National Centre for Organic Farming, Krishan Chandra, said scores of farmers, including former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, has appreciated the product and had been using it after officials had given a demonstration in his Badal village, and the overall results were good.

Talking about the reply of the Agriculture Department, the Director said the officials must form a committee and then they could supervise the working of the solution, which was available to them at Rs 20 only.

“There is a huge response from Punjab and they are coming in a larger number to use the waste decomposer in their fields. They even send us messages,” the Director said.