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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Crop burning: New machines don't solve, but add to menace -Jitendra

Crop burning: New machines don't solve, but add to menace -Jitendra

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published Published on Oct 17, 2018   modified Modified on Oct 17, 2018
-Down to Earth

Debt-ridden farmers have to either rent or buy the machines, which pose several threats to their next crop

Hamir Singh, 53, who holds a 14-acre farm in Kalajhar village in Sangrur district of Punjab, had decided to toe the line, but didn’t work for him. He followed the ban on crop residue burning and tried using new technology like the rotavator, which has rotating blades that chop the straw in to small pieces and then it spreads it inside the soil.

On October 5, he took a rotavator from Kalajhar village cooperative society on rent and paid Rs 1,200 for eight hours. He then spent Rs 3,000 on diesel, Rs 300 on servicing the machine and hired a high-power tractor. Singh used the rotavator to mulch the paddy residue on 4 acres of his land. But, now he is in trouble.

“I am afraid that all my efforts will go in vain because it seems like the straw will not dispose of even in the next one month,” says Hamir Singh while pointing at the straw that was visible even when it had been six days since he used the rotavator. “If the situation persists, I will not be able to grow wheat on time. I should have burned the residue instead of investing Rs 4,500,” adds Singh.

How effective are the machines

This raises a big question: While the government has banned stubble burning, has it not even provided farmers with a good enough alternative? The effectiveness of the machines made available to farmers, like chopper, happy seeders, super straw management system (Super-SMS) and rotavator, is questionable. “A 25-day window is not enough to decompose the straws,” says Chand Singh, a farmer leader from Sangrur.

While explaining the matter, Chand says that happy seeder has the potential of causing a rat and termite attack when wheat seeds are sown. “This machine just sows wheat without cutting paddy straw and this invites rats and termite to the field,” he claims.

When it comes to super-SMS, farmers may have to bear loss of produce and the quality too may be affected. “In one acre, we can lose up to 2.5 quintals of our paddy and the quality also dips as it spreads paddy along with the straw during harvest,” says the farm leader.

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Down to Earth, 15 October, 2018, https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/air/crop-burning-new-machines-don-t-solve-but-add-to-menace-61879


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