Panjab: Burning Fields, Machinery Junkyard, Need for MSP

Talking about the grave agrarian crisis in Panjab, a noted agriculture expert Devinder Sharma said 12 Sep, ‘Panjab is fast developing into a junkyard of stubble management machinery with the state already having 1.17 lakh such machines and another 20,000 to be added this year.’ A new report reveals the reasons for stubble burning include no minimum support price (MSP) on alternate crops and crops and crop residue being unfit for use as cattle fodder. The report Beyond Stubble Burning was released by Asar Social Impact Advisors in collaboration with a group of researchers, Clean Air Punjab, and Chemical Management and Safety Rules Consultants. The report is based on feedback gathered from 400 farmers between May and July this year in villages that have a high incidence of stubble burning. The report pointed out that even though crop residue management (CRM) schemes have been introduced, farmers still face challenges such as insufficient horsepower of tractors, limited use periods, machine malfunction, and low productivity that contribute to traditional methods and crop burning.