A review meeting of the crop residue management initiatives by the state of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and the NCT of Delhi will be held at Chandigarh on Monday.
During the meeting, the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities being carried out in these states by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) – Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs) for the crop residue management (CRM) scheme will be reviewed.
The Additional Secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, will chair the meeting at Regional Institute of Cooperative Management (RICM), Sector-32, Chandigarh at 3 pm.
Before this, Dr Abhilaksh Likhi will attend a farm demonstration on crop residue management at Harlalpur village in Kharar tehsil of SAS Nagar (Mohali) district in Punjab, and interact with the farmers in the morning.
Sharing the information, the spokesperson said that the objectives of the Crop Residue Management Scheme includes protecting environment from air pollution and preventing loss of nutrients and soil micro-organisms caused by burning of crop residue.
Besides, it aims at promoting management of crop residue by retention or incorporation into the soil or collection for further utilization through the use of appropriate mechanization inputs; promoting Farm Machinery Banks for custom hiring of crop residue management machinery to offset the adverse economies of scale arising due to small landholding and high cost of individual ownership; creating awareness among stakeholders through demonstration, capacity building activities and differentiated Information, Education and Communication strategies for effective utilization and management of crop residue.