The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare has launched a massive campaign to sensitize the farmers for proper management of straw, which is yielding constructive results and the progressive farmers of the district are joining this campaign on a large scale.An awareness camp was organized by the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department at village Badanpur in Kharar block to curb the trend of burning straw in the fields and boost the morale of the farmers who do not burn straw. Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development) Mr. Rajiv Kumar Gupta presided over the occasion. He handed over certificates of appreciation to seven farmers of village Badanpur who following the advice of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, managed the straw with machinery for the last five years and did not indulge in stubble burning. He encouraged the farmers by joining them on tractor for carrying out stubble management operations. He was accompanied by SDM Kharar Himanshu Jain, Chief Agriculture Officer Ranjit Singh Bains and Agriculture Development Officer Gurdial Kumar.Addressing the farmers participating in the awareness camp on straw management, the Additional Deputy Commissioner said that the district administration is providing state-of-the-art machinery to the farmers on subsidized rates for stubble management. Under in-situ management scheme, state-of-the-art machines are being provided at a subsidy over Rs. 1 crore for efficient management of crop residue.
The Additional Deputy Commissioner said that under the in-situ scheme, individual farmers can get 50 per cent subsidy and registered farmer groups or cooperative societies can get up to 80 per cent subsidy on stubble management machines. He said that due to the efforts of the district administration 45 groups of custom hiring and 67 cooperative societies were providing straw management machinery to the farmers on hire. In addition, there are 75 combine harvesters equipped with Super Straw Management System for straw management and 4000 harrow. 107 new machines are also being provided to the societies / farmers through the crop residue in-situ management scheme. Farmers can rent and use the machines as per their requirement from the Custom Hiring Centre. Mr. Gupta said that the main objective of providing state-of-the-art farming machines was to improve the fertility of the land by mixing straw in the fields instead of burning it and to protect the environment from pollution.On the occasion Additional Deputy Commissioner o congratulated the farmers who were successful in the campaign of direct sowing of paddy under Atma scheme. Praising the progressive farmers, he said that the administration was always ready to curb the trend of burning straw and resolve all their problems. To boost the morale of the farmers who do not burn straw, the farmers would also be honored at the district level functions, said he .He said that while the administration respects the farmers who manage the straw without burning it, but is also ready to take stern action against the violators.On the occasion Chief Agriculture Officer Mr. Ranjit Singh Bains welcomed the guests and encouraged the farmers to mixthe straw in the field to increase the fertility of the land, keep intact the farmer friendlymicro-organisms in the land.