24,000 crop residue machines to be given to Punjab farmers

24,000 crop residue machines to be given to Punjab farmers

Chandigarh: To curb stubble burning incidents and manage the crop residue effectively, the Punjab Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Department will provide more than 24,000 crop residue management (CRM) machines, including 5,000 surface seeders, at subsidised prices to farmers during this harvesting season.

Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said, in a very positive change, the department had received 1,58,394 applications from farmers to avail subsidy on the CRM machinery. The sanction letters to the selected beneficiaries have been released through online portal.

Last year, the state was able to reduce stubble burning cases by 30 per cent with the use of CRM machines, said the Agriculture Minister, while adding that Rs 350 crore had been kept reserved to curb the crop residue burning incidents this year. The applications for availing subsidy were invited via an online portal to ensure transparency and make the procedure easy to use for availing the subsidy.

Khudian said the Agriculture Department had also been making concerted efforts to set up custom-hiring centres at each block, wherein CRM machines would be available for small and marginal farmers.