By
Tricitynews
Chandigarh
01st June:- The One Day Seminar on “Prevention & Solution
to Stubble Burning” was organized by the Institution of Engineers (India), Punjab
& Chandigarh State Centre in its premises at Chandigarh which was widely
attended by all concerned.
Inaugural Session of the function was graced by Dr. S.K. Pattanayak Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers
Welfare, Govt. of India as Chief Guest. Vishwajeet Khanna Additional Chief Secretary, Deptt. of
Agriculture, Punjab, Dr. Ashwani Kumar, Joint Secretary to Govt. of India,
Deptt. of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare and Kahan Singh Pannu Secretary,
Agriculture, Punjab and Chairman Punjab Pollution Control Board participated as
“Guest of Honour”. J.P.S. Bindra, General Manager, Nabard, Punjab Regional
Office, Chandigarh also participated in the event.
Er. J R Grag Chairman of IEI Punjab Chandigarh State centre welcomed all
participants. Nutan K. Dash Chairman, Agriculture Division Board IEI, delivered his
address on the theme. Er. PS Bhogal organizing chairman of this seminar presented vote of
thanks and also latter presented outcome of this seminar. Valedictory session
at the end of seminar was chaired by Er. HCS Berry Past President IEI as Chief
Guest. The Key Speakers of the Inaugural/Technical Session–1 Indra Mani Mishra,
Head, Agriculture Engg., ICAR- IARI New Delhi and Dr. Jaskaran Singh Mahal,
Director, PAU Ludhiana presented on the various issues of Stubble burning
involving the challenges and solutions to this issue.
Punjab and other North Western States, neighbouring NCT of Delhi facing
Crop Residue Burning for the past 30 years, will now get some relief as the
Central Government has joined the state of Punjab for providing enhanced
subsidy for farmers on Agricultural
Machinery & Equipment for in-situ management of crop residues. The State of
Punjab & other States has been assisted by Govt of India through the active
involvement of Prime Minister's Office and the Agriculture & Farmers
Welfare Ministry. This has been stated by Dr S. K Pattanayak, I.A.S, Secretary
to Government of India in the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare,
while inaugurating a seminar on Prevention & Solution to Stubble Burning at
Engineers Bhawan, Chandigarh. He expressed that everyone is proud of the
contributions made by the farmers of the state in producing food grains for the
country in hard times but as other states have also followed in terms of
production of food grains, the Punjab farmers need to diversify to other crops
with more sustainable and locally appropriate systems of production and income
from agriculture sector.
The Guest of Honour on the occasion, Additional Chief Secretary,
Development, Viswajeet
Khanna, addressing the gathering expressed his views that the Punjab has
sacrificed its natural resources in terms of water and soil health while
producing more food grains for the country in difficult times. Government had
to take a saviour step to implement "Punjab Sub Surface Water Preservation
Act, in 2009," to put a check on falling ground water that has resulted in
shift in transplanting date of Paddy. But this has reduced the time window
available for only 15-20 days, between the harvesting of paddy and sowing of
wheat & other crops .Secondly, the farmers in Punjab has been growing high
yielding varieties of paddy that are also generating huge volume of straw,
which is not possible to manage and has escalated the problem resulting in
large scale paddy straw burning .
The
One Day Seminar organised by Institution of Engineers , Punjab & Chandigarh
State Centre for finding solutions to prevention and solution to stubble
burning here in Engineers Bhawan , Madhya Marg, Chandigarh. The Institution
having its strong base and known for its activities in the country can provide
more practical solutions to the problem in the near future. The Seminar
attended by delegates from Govt. Departments , Central Institutions , Students
from engineering colleges , Progressive Farmers and representatives from
industry.
Addressing the
delegates, Joint Secretary informed that the cabinet in Government of India has
approved a New Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Promotion of Agricultural
Mechanization for In-Situ Management of
Crop Residue In the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi,
vide which state of Punjab will get Rs. 665.00 crores over a period of 2 years
with large scale awareness activities, media campaign, and demonstration of
equipment. Under this scheme, 80% subsidy will be provided on single or
multiple equipment for In-Situ crop residue management equipment to PACS or
Farmer Groups or FPOs on the Project
Cost of Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) for Farm Machinery Banks ranging from 10.00
lakh to 75.00 lakhs and 50 % subsidy to individual farmers for procurement
of these equipment.
Punjab Pollution
Control Board, Chairman and Secretary Agriculture, Kahan
Singh Pannu, enlightened the gathering, as how far stubble burning is causing
damage to soils in the state as well as the production levels besides the
environment. Taking a step towards the
solution to the problem, the owners of Combine Harvesters in the state have
been intimated that no combine harvester will be allowed to operate in the
state during forthcoming paddy harvesting season & there onwards, without
Super Straw Management System, which is helpful in chopping and widely
spreading the paddy straw has been made mandatory under the Air Act ,1986.
Other
Speakers Manmohan Kalia, Nodal Officer Crop Residue Management, Agriculture
Department, Sandeep Garg of Eco Laboratories, Dr Sucha Singh Gill , CRRID also
addressed the gathering . It has been proposed that the Governments should
promote the all known technologies & practices on-board, may it be Residue Management by keeping paddy or wheat straw as
mulch and sowing wheat or other crops in the mulch itself or Incorporation of
residue in to the soils and may it be Collection
& Removal of Straw out of the fields
as per the local requirements and other techniques such as Compost
Making , Generation of Bio CNG , Bio Ethanol , Pelletisation for cattle feed
& fuel cakes etc.
