Green concern at heart of big plan
AMLOH (FATEHGARH SAHIB): A visit to Amloh, an industrial town in Fatehgarh Sahib, will showcase a simple, unique solution. Industrialist Han Raj Garg, 38, an MBA, thought of using paddy straw as fuel in his factory in 2014, and the idea has clicked. Farmers earned more (some even earned in lakhs by making bales of straw for Garg) and Amloh has the lowest number of farm fire incidents in Punjab today.
“My concern for environment and farmers led me to monetise straw,” said Garg, whose units manufacture edible oils under the name, Shree Ganesh Edibles Pvt Limited.
Garg added there was no-cost effective in-situ (without transport) stubble management formula as yet. Farmers will shun the illegal practice of burning, if they get money for handling straw.
“In 2014, I started with 25,000-tonne of paddy straw. For the past three years, I am purchasing 72,000 tonne of stubble and paid Rs 11 crore to farmers.”
“In 2019, the Supreme Court
ordered Rs 100 per quintal as compensation for farmers for handling straw. I have been doing it since 2014,” he says, adding that nearly 1,000 farmers directly or indirectly (mostly marginal) collect straw from other farmers’ fields. “I know a farmer who collected paddy straw from 3,000 acre in 2019 and made a profit of Rs 30 lakh,” Garg added.
“For six years, I am not selling straw from my own fields, but collecting from neighouring fields. Who will burn paddy straw when you will Rs 100 per quintal for it?,” said Harinder Singh, a farmer.
Garg added that the major issue in using paddy straw as fuel was its silica content, which led to a snag in industrial boilers. “With research, plus experience, we have been running our factory on rice straw for seven years. For the past two years, we have been supplying 0.5 MW power to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited,” he said. “Our process is environment-friendly in two ways. We don’t use fossil fuels in factory and are also resolving the unregulated burning of agricultural waste,” he said.
“If the government supports me, I can invest more and will purchase stubble from the 1.08 lakh acre under paddy in Fatehgarh Sahib district. Officials, however, are not receptive and not allowing me to run a 15MW co-gen plant for factory on rice straw, even as a proposal has been submitted,” he says.