Stubble burning on the rise in Amritsar as farmers get ready for next crop

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 1

Farmers in the district are taking full advantage of the public holiday on Sunday, as a large number of stubble burning incidents were witnessed in the rural areas.

It being a holiday, farmers were fully aware of the fact that no government teams would visit the area to keep a check on the illegal activity.

At places, these fires were also seen burning the dry grass on the green belts alongside roads in rural areas. Every year, a large number of plant saplings and even big trees are damaged due to these unguarded fires started by farmers.

Residents in the rural areas reported that stubble burning witnessed a sharp increase on Sunday. Though most farmers have already harvested the wheat crop, many also used the remaining stubble to make dry fodder for animals.

However, the lower stems of the wheat plants, which could not be used by machines for making dry fodder, are burnt. In comparison to paddy crop, in which the entire stubble is unusable for farmers, in wheat most of it is used to make dry fodder.

A farmer said: “If we do not burn the residue, it will float on water at the time of puddling of fields for paddy transplanting.” He said: “The idea of direct seeding of rice (DSR technique) has still not caught the fancy of a maximum number of farmers and as such the transplanting method is still being widely preferred.”

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