There are few takers to the Centre’s incentives to check stubble burning in neighbouring States — Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh — causing spurt in air pollution in Delhi-NCR.
According to farmers, despite availing the 80 per cent subsidy provided, they still need to shell out Rs 20,000 per set of agro machinery for farm waste management.
The subsidies being offered is 50 per cent for individual farmers and 80 per cent for cooperative societies for the machinery. These are not enough for the farmers who cannot afford to go for machinery purchase for want of surplus cash even if they want to avail the subsidy.
The Centre has provided Rs 575.18 crore to farmers of Punjab, Haryana Uttar Pradesh this year to ensure that they should buy state-of-the-art machines, such as happy seeder, paddy straw chopper/cutter, mulcher, RMB plough, shrub cutter, zero till drill, super straw management system on combine harvesters, rotary slasher and rotavator to manage crop residue at their farms at subsidised rate.
The Narendra Modi Government had approved of Rs 1,151 crore Central funds to control stubble burning causing pollution in four States. Of these, Rs 591 crore will be spent in next fiscal while the remaining Rs 560 crore will be meant for assisting stakeholders in 2019-20. Currently, the happy seeder machine costs about Rs 1.75 lakh while the shrub cutter is priced at Rs 15,000. Similarly, rotavator costs Rs 1 lakh. Farmers will have to buy more than one such machine to get rid of the stubble. The cost of a single combine harvester is Rs 15 lakh.
Farmers said the stubble burning is necessary as it is difficult to prepare compost with the help of machines since it takes almost 20 days for the whole process to be completed. Besides, due to late withdrawal of southwest monsoon, the situation aggravated this year as the window period for managing the paddy crop residue has got shortened by at least 10-15 days because of rains last month that delayed paddy harvesting.
“We are small farmers. ‘Happy seeder’ isn’t suitable for us. Machines are very expensive, we cannot afford spending 50 per cent of the cost from our meager income,” a farmer said. He went on to add that increasing price of diesel make these machines a costly affair.
“The Government has supplied less than four per cent of the total machinery required to the farmers to deal with stubbles”, Rashtriya Kisan Mahasang Chief Executive Officer Binod Kumar Pandey said. .
In November, farmers typically harvest rice to sow wheat. After the harvest, they often set the leftover plant debris (50-60 cm) on fire to clear fields for the next plantings, a practice known as stubble burning which has become an annual nuisance for the environment and human health. One tonne of paddy straw contains approximately 5.5 kg nitrogen, 2.3 kg phosphorus, 25 kg potassium, 1.2 kg sulfur and 400 kg of carbon, which are mostly lost (except potassium and partial phosphorous) during paddy straw burning, stated a Karnal Agriculture University official. Particles from stubble burning combine with industrial pollution, vehicle exhaust and dust to cover the region every year as winter approaches and wind speeds drop.
The Punjab Government has provided farmers the machines to manage the paddy straw, but agrees that the number of machines are insufficient. Punjab Chief minister Amridner Singh has claimed that they have already spent Rs 250 crore to provide 25,000 machines, of which 15,367 have actually been delivered. “The rest will be given by October end,” he recently said.
The Punjab CM met Modi last Friday and demanded Rs 100 per quintal compensation to farmers to deal with the problem of stubble burning.
On the other hand, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal has accused the Punjab Government of having “failed” to incentivise farmers to check stubble burning in the State.
Officials of Agriculture Ministry said burning stubble in Punjab and Haryana has clearly reflected that the Centre’s scheme has failed to reach farmers despite tall claims by State Governments.