To prevent farmers from burning paddy straw and in turn checking air pollution, the Punjab Government on Wednesday decided to give 4,000 mowing machines to cooperative societies.
“The Punjab Government has decided to motivate farmers to adopt mechanical mowing machines to mow straw in earth rather than burning it in order to reduce air pollution,” said the State Agriculture Minister Tota Singh while presiding over a meeting with the agriculture machine manufacturers.“With the onset of harvesting season of paddy, the Agriculture Department will provide a viable alternative to the farmers to desist them from burning paddy straw and residue….The farmers could avail subsidy on the direct purchase of these machines,” he said.
The Minister said that Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has also directed to provide incentives to those farm machine makers who manufacture machines at a low cost.He said that the state government is going to provide machines which can allow straw be used as fodder, for mushroom crop and for biomass power plants.
“Before mowing the straw was practical eco-friendly alternate mechanism and we have to encourage it. Punjab Government has taken lead in providing new mechanism to destroy mow straw instead of burning,” he said.Minister informed that Punjab Government is going to provide three types of machines on subsidy to the farmers. “One machine would cut one-to-two inches pieces of straw which could be used as fodder, second machine would cut pieces of straw to utilize it for mushroom growing and third machine for making bundles of mow straw to a size that could be used for biomass power plants,” he added.
Agriculture Minister instructed the department officials to adopt a transparent and proper standard system while testing of mow straw cutting machines.