Farmers to get cash incentives for managing crop residue

As the paddy harvesting season continues, Assistant Agriculture Engineer Vijay Jain has urged farmers to avoid burning paddy stubble and instead manage it responsibly, considering both environmental and public welfare. The state government has announced a cash incentive of Rs 1,000 per acre for the farmers who use straw balers to bundle paddy residue.

Special incentives are also available for villages in the “red” and “yellow” zones, designated based on stubble burning cases. Villages in these zones can receive Rs 1 lakh and Rs 50,000, respectively, if no incidents of stubble burning are reported.

the farmers who mix the paddy residue into the soil without burning it will also receive Rs 1,000 per acre. They need to keep GPS-tagged photos of their fields for verification, which will be done by a village-level committee, followed by an approval from a district committee. The registered farmers will get the incentive transferred directly to their bank accounts.

Additionally, Deputy Commissioner Shantanu Sharma shared that over 6,963 metric tonnes of paddy had been purchased across district markets at minimum support prices. He advised the farmers to dry their paddy before bringing it to the markets for faster processing and reminded them to use the crop residue for cattle feed or mix it into the soil for enhancing its fertility.