Singh holds meeting on Crop Residue Management

New Delhi: The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh held a meeting on Tuesday here to discuss various issues regarding crop residue management.

Singh said that the state governments should create massive awareness on crop stubble management and create a large number of customs hiring centers in which machines for crop residue management are included.

“Take steps to promote use of equipments for crop residue management in a big way”, said Singh.

The various issues related to crop residue management and stubble burning were discussed in this meeting. Singh has directed the officials of the Ministry and State Governments to take steps to promote use of equipments for crop residue management in a big way.

The Minister of State for Agriculture, S.S.Ahluwalia was also present in the meeting.

Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Chairman, Central Pollution Control Board, Deputy Director General, ICAR and representatives of the State Agriculture Departments of Punjab, Haryana and UP were also present.

In January 2015 a workshop on crop stubble burning issues and management was held in Chandigarh in which the central and state government officials discussed the issues and made several recommendations on the issue.

Similarly in Haryana and UP the Chief Secretaries and Principal Secretaries of Agriculture took several meetings to monitor the progress of this important crop residue management issue.

Under various state government schemes like SMAM, RKVY, NFSM, CDP, Agricultural Machineries like Happy seeder, Motivator, Zero till seed drill, Baler, Paddy Straw Chopper, and Reaper Binder, were distributed to farmers as a result of which there is substantial reduction in stubble burning in Haryana, UP and Punjab.

In the meeting, the Agriculture Minister has directed the state governments to use these machines for crop residue management effectively.