Gurgaon: Ahead of the upcoming harvest season, the state govt has identified villages where stubble burning is rampant every year. This time, Haryana’s efforts are focused on 469 villages spanning 12 districts — Ambala, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jind, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Rohtak, Kaithal, Yamunanagar, Sonipat, and Palwal.
Among these, 67 villages are categorised as ‘red zones’, which are areas experiencing five or more farm fires daily, while 402 are designated as ‘yellow zones’ — areas experiencing up to two farm fires per day.These statistics demonstrate a significant improvement from 2022 which recorded as many as 147 ‘red zone’ villages and 582 ‘yellow zone’ villages.
To further discourage farmers from stubble burning, a WhatsApp group named ‘No Straw Burning’ was created by the govt for real-time surveillance at the district and block levels and sub-divisional magistrates (SDMs) were designated as nodal officers to oversee crop residue management within their respective jurisdictions.
Moreover, temporary police posts were established in the ‘red zone’ villages and control rooms were set up to ensure stringent enforcement of regulations. Farmers were incentivised to discard the practice of crop residue-burning as well.
In 2023, stubble burning in Haryana fell by 37% as compared to the winter months of 2022, as reported by the govt. Every winter, the air quality in Delhi-NCR deteriorates to hazardous levels as the region becomes enveloped in a toxic haze due to cold and stagnant weather conditions coupled with emissions.
Farm fires, common in north India’s agricultural belt to clear tracts of land for another round of sowing following the harvest season, are among the primary sources of pollution during this time of the year. This decades-old method, which is cheaper than most others, is used by most small-scale farmers in Punjab, Haryana, and UP. These farmers often do not opt for alternative methods like manually clearing the land or spraying bio-enzyme called PUSA because they do not have the capacity for it.
According to Agriculture department, in Haryana, the total estimated area under paddy in kharif 2024 will be 38.87 lakh acres, generating 81.08 LMT of crop residue. Out of this, the areas under basmati and non-basmati will be 19.49 lakh acres and 19.38 lakh acres respectively, generating 40.65 LMT and 40.43 LMT of crop residue.
“Villages that manage to eliminate stubble burning and fall in the yellow zone will be awarded cash prizes of Rs 50,000 each and those that eliminate the practice and fall in the red zone will be awarded Rs 1 lakh,” said Darshan Singh, technical assistant at the agriculture department.
“To tackle the situation, we have a micro-level planning in place. The aim is to further reduce the number of farm fires and increase the area where there is no stubble burning,” Singh added.
According to officials, various machines such as Super Straw Management System attached with existing combine harvester, Happy Seeder, Straw Chopper, Mulcher, Rotary Slasher, Reversible M B Plough, Super Seeder, Crop Reapers etc have been successfully deployed and demonstrated in fields of these villages. Currently, more than 90,000 machines have been provided for in-situ management of crop residue, they added.
Credit Source – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/gurgaon/ahead-of-harvest-haryana-ramps-up-steps-to-curb-stubble-burning-in-469-villages/articleshow/113534828.cms