Rs 2,500/acre incentive for not burning paddy straw

Tribune News Service

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, July 27

Farmers in Punjab, who do not burn paddy straw, will get a compensation of Rs 2,500 per acre. The compensation will be paid in equal parts of Rs 500 per acre each by the Punjab and Delhi Governments, while Rs 1,500 per acre will be paid by the Centre.

The move to compensate farmers jointly by both the state governments and the Centre was announced by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today.

He said a proposal in this regard had been sent by the AAP government in Punjab to the Air Quality Commission. This incentivising of farmers will go a long way in promoting the in-situ management of paddy stubble and substantially reduce air pollution levels in Delhi and the NCR, caused mainly because of stubble burning.

Information gathered by The Tribune reveals that the details of all farmers are already uploaded on the ‘Anaj Kharid’ portal of the state government. The payment to farmers, for the crops bought from them, is also given through this portal. The government will be giving this cash incentive to farmers for not burning paddy stubble and going in for in-situ stubble management through the ‘Anaj Kharid’ portal.

The government will rely on remote sensing imagery as well as physical verification of fields to check claims made by farmers for seeking this compensation.

Officials in the state Agriculture Department have told The Tribune that this is the first time that a cash incentive is being offered to farmers to wean them away from stubble-burning — a major environmental concern in the autumn season after paddy is harvested.

Though in 2019, the Supreme Court had stated that farmers be compensated (at Rs 100 per quintal) in case they went in for either in-situ or ex-situ paddy stubble-management, the proposal failed to take off as the Centre refused to help the states with this incentive.

The only subsidy given to Punjab farmers is for buying in-situ management machinery, which is around Rs 1,145 crore since 2018.

“If the Government of India fails to release funds, we will give them at least Rs 1,000 per acre as compensation for not burning paddy straw. Both Punjab and Delhi Government will incur an expenditure of Rs 365 crore each. If the Centre agrees to foot its share of compensating farmers with Rs 1,500 per acre, their share will work out to be Rs 1,095 crore,” said a top government officer.

This year, 29.3 lakh hectares (73 lakh acres) in Punjab is under paddy cultivation. Each year, almost 50 per cent of the area under paddy is prepared for the next crop by burning stubble. Last year, 76,680 incidents of stubble burning were reported, which were the highest in the past several years.

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#Pollution #stubble burning