As many as 400 innovative and progressive farmers from Punjab will participate in National Conference of Farmers on Crop residue Management to be held in New Delhi tomorrow.Disclosing this here today a spokesperson of the Agriculture Department said that nearly 1000 farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh would be part of this conference and also share their innovative ideas adopted for in-situ crop residue management. This conference being organized by the Government of India at NASC Complex, New Delhi would go a long way in mitigating the problem of stubble burning besides creating awareness among farming community.Union Agriculture & Farmers Welfare Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will give inaugural address in this conference.The innovative farmers from Punjab would also be felicitated by the GoI, who made outstanding contribution in promoting In-situ residue management. The experts from Punjab Agriculture University and State Agriculture Department will also give presentation on initiatives taken by them for the adoption in-situ crop residues technologies in Punjab.
Meanwhile, the Secretary Agriculture Kahan Singh Pannu appreciating the efforts of progressive farmers to curb the menace of stubble burning said that Punjab Government has already launched a massive campaign to check stubble burning. Pannu said that with the concerted efforts of State Government and various departments the stubble burning had been reduced remarkably than the previous years. He said that it was the high time to educate our farmers about the ill-effects of stubble burning to ensure clean, green and pollution free environment.With a view to making Punjab a ‘zero stubble burning state’, the State Agriculture Department has already initiated a massive drive to provide more than 28000 agro-machines/farm equipment to farmers with subsidy component of Rs. 274 crore during the current fiscal for in-situ management of paddy residue. Subsidy ranging from 50% to 80% is being also provided to the farmers under the scheme.The Agriculture Department had also launched Information Education Communication (IEC) activities to educate farmers about the ill-effects of paddy straw burning. This awareness campaign is primarily aimed at imparting training to farmers and practical demonstration of equipments for In-Situ Crop Residue Management to encourage them for refraining from stubble burning.