A ₹500 crore plan has been formulated by Punjab's AAP government, providing the farmers with crop residue management machinery to check stubble burning, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian said on Sunday.
The department has invited online applications from farmers to avail of subsidy for the procurement of crop residue management (CRM) machines.
Khuddian said in a statement that the state government was offering a 50 per cent subsidy to individual farmers and 80 per cent to cooperative societies and gram panchayats to buy CRM equipment.
With this initiative, the state government aims to make CRM equipment more accessible, promoting its adoption and ultimately contributing to a cleaner environment, he added.
The minister said the subsidy would be available on machinery such as Super SMS, happy seeder, super seeder, surface seeder, smart seeder, zero till drill, baler, rake, shrub master, rotary slasher, and paddy straw chopper, among others.
Also Read: Punjab Budget 2025: Govt unveils 'Badlata Punjab' plan
The department's administrative secretary Basant Garg said Punjab had witnessed significant progress in crop residue management.
The Punjab government distributed 17,600 subsidised CRM equipment to individual farmers, cooperative societies, and panchayats during the previous season. Additionally, 1,331 custom hiring centres were established to facilitate CRM practices.
These efforts resulted in a 70 per cent decrease in stubble burning incidents during the previous season compared to 2023.
Punjab reported 10,909 incidents of stubble burning in 2024 compared to 36,663 in 2023.
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after paddy crop harvest in October and November is often blamed for the rise in air pollution levels in Delhi-NCR.
As the window for the Rabi crop -- wheat -- is very short after paddy harvest, some farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the residue for sowing the next crop.
Follow us
