Farmers urge DC to fix June 10 as start date for paddy transplantation in Amritsar district

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, February 6

Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ghanshyam Thori visited villages which had reported maximum farm fires during the paddy harvesting season to learn about the reasons behind farmers still sticking to the practice despite the availability of crop residue management machines.

The DC said the district had reported a total of 1,577 farm fires during the paddy season. He said as per the data available from Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, no farm fires were reported from 280 villages in the district.

Thori during a visit to Nag Kalan village, near Majitha, said farmers could get machines on subsidy from the government for crop residue management. He said a total of 885 machines were provided to farmers during the previous year. While interacting with the DC, famers suggested that the start date for paddy transplantation should be fixed at June 10. They said fixing a late date left no time for farmers to manage the stubble without burning it as they were in a hurry to sow the next crop.

The farmers also demanded that those who do not burn crop residue should be given a subsidy of Rs 2,000 per acre for the alternate management of the crop residue with machines used with tractors that consumed huge amount of diesel. Experts of the Agriculture Department apprised farmers about the harms of crop residue burning and appealed to them to stop the practice in view of the rising air pollution and depleting soil health.

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#Agriculture #Environment #Farm Fires #Pollution