New Delhi: A meeting under the Chairmanship of the Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Shri Radha Mohan Singh was held today in New Delhi to discuss various issues regarding crop residue management. In the meeting, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Shri S.S.Ahluwalia was also present. Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board, Deputy Director General, ICAR and representatives of the State Agriculture Departments of Punjab, Haryana and UP were also present.
In the meeting various issues related to crop residue management and stubble burning were discussed and Shri Radha Mohan Singh directed the officials of the Ministry and State Governments to take steps to promote use of equipments for crop residue management in a big way. The Minister also emphasised that the State Governments should create massive awareness on crop stubble management and create large number of customs hiring centres in which machines for crop residue management are included.
In November, 2014 a National Policy for Management of Crop Residue was made and sent to all the State Governments. Advisories were also issued to state governments from time to time. State Governments took several steps in this direction.
In January 2015 a workshop on crop stubble burning issues and management was held in Chandigarh in which the central and state government officials discussed the issues and made several recommendations on the issue. Similarly in Haryana and UP the Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of Agriculture took several meetings to monitor the progress of this important crop residue management issue. Under various state government schemes like SMAM, RKVY, NFSM, CDP, Agrcultural Machineries like Happy seeder (used for sowing of crop in standing stubble) Rotavator (used for land preparation and incorporation of crop stubble in the soil), Zero till seed drill (used for without land preparations directly sowing of seeds in the previous crop stubbles), Baler (used for collection of straw and making bales of the paddy stubbles), Paddy Straw Chopper (cutting of paddy stubble for easily mixing with the soil) and Reaper Binder (used for harvesting of paddy stubble and making into bundles) were distributed to farmers as a result of which there is substantial reduction in stubble burning in Haryana, UP and Punjab. In the meeting the Union Minister directed the state governments to use these machines for crop residue management effectively.
