Thread by @ramanmann1974

Thread

How did Punjab fare w.r.t #paddy #straw burning this year !

This year burnt area is 14.88 lakh hectares Vs 14.17 lakh hectares paddy acreage burnt till Nov 20, last year

Till Nov 21, Punjab recorded 49,526 farm fire incidents Vs 70,879 field fire cases during last year.

This year the total area under #rice cultivation in #Punjab is 30.29 lakh hectares, nearly 4.5 lakh hectares is under basmati rice, while the remaining 25.79 lakh hectares is under paddy. Farmers mostly burn paddy areas as basmati stubble is used for making fodder for the cattle.

Out of nearly 26 lakh hectares of paddy area, #Punjab has already burnt #stubble in 14.88 lakh hectares (57% of the paddy area and 48% of the total rice area in the state) till now. Around 3 lakh hectares (20%) of paddy acreage was burnt in just 5 days from November 14 to Nov 18.

Last year out of the total burning of crop residue on 15.65 lakh hectares, stubble on nearly 14.17 lakh hectares was burnt till Nov 20. #Stubble burning is recorded till Nov-end. Out of 23 districts in Punjab, 12 districts show an increase in the burnt area compared to last year.

Sangrur tops the chart in farm fires where the #crop #residue was burnt on 1.54 lakh hectares out of 2.12 lakh hectares area which comes to 72.7% of the total rice area of the district. This is followed by Ferozepur and Barnala where 65% and 63% area was burnt, respectively.

According to PPCB records, till Nov 20 Rs 1.67 crore environmental compensation was slapped against 6,511 farm fire incidents out of which only Rs 12,500 could be recovered from the farmers. In 4,537 field fire cases, red entries were made against the land records of the farmers.

Center provided Punjab 1388 crores for subsidized #straw management machines, which acc to Punjab Remote Sensing Centre r highly under utilized; usage of 15,000 subsidized straw management machines with the state Co-op societies usage was between 2 hours & 29.3 hours, this season

The avg usage of a Happy Seeder, was only 2 hours, in the entire season; similarly a RMB Plough, available with the state cooperative societies was used for only 3.9 hours, Rotavators and Mulcher were used for barely 6.9 hours, and Super Seeder machines were used for 29.3 hours !

Even an eight year old, would infer, from this data, that the policy of flooding machinery in Punjab is not yielding results. Despite the subsidy on machines, with the increased costs of fuel and labour, small and the marginal farmers are in no state to own or rent the machines.

On the other hand, farm fires in Haryana, have dipped by 45% this year. One of the main reasons in the drop in farm fires in Haryana can be attributed to the fact that Haryana is providing an incentive of Rs 1,000 per acre to those farmers who do not burn #paddy stubble.

Govts have to shed their political differences & come out with a road map which factors in the inability of farmers to bear straw management costs. S.C direction,which provides financial assistance of Rs 100/quintal to farmers who are not burning paddy straw is a very good start.