The Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Radha Mohan Singh, believes that hundreds of millions of waste produced in India comes from agriculture and related enterprises.
“According to statistics, 70 per cent of the waste is used in industrial sector and as domestic fuel. The remaining waste can be converted into bio-components and bio-fuels which can be used for energy generation.” He was speaking at the national conference on ‘Potential of Waste in Energy Generation and its Challenges’, organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare and Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) at the NASC complex, Pusa in New Delhi.
The minister emphasised the need to eliminate pollution caused by the burning of crop residues. He informed that the government is providing a subsidy at the rate of 50-80 per cent for crop residue management machinery. These machines help farmers in mixing crop residue with soil to make it more productive. Farmer groups are being provided financial assistance at the rate of 80 per cent of the project cost for establishing Farm Machinery Banks for custom hiring of crop residue management machinery. A provision of Rs 1151.80 crore for two years has been made under this scheme for states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCR.
He said, “The management of crop residue in the field will help the soil become more fertile thereby resulting in the savings of Rs 2000 per hectare from the farmer’s manure cost.” Under the sub-mission on agricultural mechanisation, 40 per cent subsidy is given on straw rake, straw baler, loader and so on.
Singh further elaborated that the PAU Ludhiana centre of AICRP on Energy for Agriculture and Agro-industries (EAAI) has developed and installed a biogas plant for dry fermentation of paddy straw through which biogas equivalent to 3-4 LPG cylinders per month can be produced.
He also advocated the need to adopt the latest technology and use cleaner energy sources to combat global warming.