Intensifying his government’s efforts to combat stubble burning, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Thursday launched three mobile apps aimed at checking crop residue burning and creating awareness about its ill-effects.
Underlining the need to strengthen coordination among various concerned agencies and departments, the Chief Minister called for strict monitoring of the situation at all levels, while stressing the need to create awareness among farmers, and to motivate them, against stubble burning.
Noting that such burning cause irreversible damage to the texture of soil, natural environment and human health, Capt Amarinder directed the Agriculture Department to work in tandem with the Science, Technology and Environment Department to intensify the campaign to educate farmers about the menace.
He underscored the need for a holistic approach through synergistic efforts of all related departments, such as Agriculture, Revenue, Science, Technology and Environment, Food and Civil Supplies etc, to tackle the problem.
The Chief Minister also emphasized the need to motivate the farmers to make optimum use of subsidized agriculture equipment and machinery being provided to the cooperative societies and custom hiring centres for in-situ paddy residue management, which was the only scientific solution to dispose of the crop residue.
The three android mobile applications launched by the Chief Minister have been developed by Punjab Remote Sensing Centre (PRSC). They are i-Khet Machine — for facilitating farmers to have access to the agriculture machinery or equipment for in-situ management of crop residue, e-PEHaL — for monitoring tree plantation, and e-Prevent — to have prompt and accurate information regarding incidents of crop residue burning.
These applications would provide relevant information at district, block and village levels, in English and Punjabi.
Capt Amarinder appreciated the work being done by the nearly 8,000 nodal officers appointed at village level, as well as the special campaign launched on social media and involving the school students, youth clubs and NSS volunteers. These initiatives, he said, would go a long way to persuade the farmers to shun the practice of stubble burning.
Additional Chief Secretary (Development) Viswajeet Khanna informed the Chief Minister that the paddy was grown over 65 lakh acres, of which 20 million tons of paddy straw was produced and just five million tons was being managed while nearly 15 million tons of paddy straw was being burnt for easy clearance of field.
He also pointed out that burning of one ton of paddy straw leads to net loss of 5.5 kg of nitrogen, 2.3 kg of phosphorus, 25 kg of potassium, 1.2 kg sulphur, 400 kg organic matter, besides death of useful microbial population.
Apart from this, it also degrades the air quality thus posing a major environmental hazard affecting both life and soil health.
Presently, about 4.30 million tons of paddy (21.82 percent of total paddy straw generation) was being utilized by various stake holders without burning the same in the fields, said Khanna.
Khanna further revealed that the Central Government had sanctioned Rs 665 crore for in-situ paddy straw management technical measures for 2018-19 and 2019-20. A sum of Rs 269 crore had already been received on account of 50 percent subsidy to individual farmers and 80 percent subsidy to groups and cooperatives.
Till date, 13,290 agriculture machines or equipments have been distributed amongst the customer hiring centres, cooperative societies and farmers, against the target of 24,000 machines or equipments.