-The Tribune It must be recognised that a practice that has been going on for over 50 years cannot be stopped at once. Farmers need economically viable solutions. Farmers should have the choice to adopt a solution that best suits them. A sustainable agricultural system is one that produces abundant food without depleting the earth’s resources and without polluting the environment. Thus, it is best if crop stubble is incorporated into...

-The Indian Express The top court also issued notices to the Centre and Punjab, Haryana and Delhi governments on a plea by Class XII student Aditya Dubey and law student Aman Banka, which sought directions to provide free of cost stubble-removing machines to small and marginal farmers to check the menace. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta Tuesday objected to a proposal to withhold a part of the Minimum Support Price (MSP) to verify...

-The Indian Express Area under Paddy stubble burning in Punjab up despite number of machines almost doubling. Jalandhar: Punjab farmers have sown 4.50 lakh hectares (lh) wheat area this time using Happy Seeders. This is nearly 13% of the total 35.08 lh planted under the rabi cereal crop in the state. Not bad, it would seem, for a relatively new technology, which allows wheat to be directly seeded in combine-harvested paddy fields...

-The Indian Express At current rates of depletion, Punjab’s entire subsurface water resource could be exhausted in a little over two decades. Jalandhar: As the discussion around Punjab’s massive groundwater crisis becomes more urgent, there is an increasingly stronger accent on diversification of crops, and a move away from water-guzzling paddy. At a meeting over the weekend, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, decided to strengthen maize — the most important alternative to...

-The Indian Express Following a Supreme Court order directing three states to compensate farmers who have refrained from burning Paddy stubble on their fields, Punjab government is paying Rs 2,500 per acre. The Indian Express explains how the government is zeroing in on those managed the stubble in an environment friendly way * How many farmers have applied for compensation? The state government has received nearly 85,000 applications till date. The numbers...