Centre’s Rs 100-crore project to save environment from stubble burning
On a day the Rajya Sabha debated deteriorating environment in Delhi, the Centre on Thursday cleared a Rs 100-crore project to tackle the problem of stubble burning by farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan worsening air quality in the capital, causing severe breathing problems.
Hailing it as a significant step to combat climate change, the national steering committee on climate change approved the regional project on “climate resilience building among farmers through crop residue management. The project will help the farmers by identifying economically viable alternate use of residues that also increases their income.
Environment secretary C K Mishra, who chaired the meeting, said the project not only aims to mitigate climate change impacts and enhance adaptive capacity, but it will also counter the adverse environmental impacts that arise from the stubble burning.
The project will be implemented in a phased manner, starting with awareness campaign and capacity building to encourage the farmers to adopt alternate practices that will enhance their income and help them diversify livelihood options.
A slew of technological interventions will be undertaken for timely management of crop residue in ad- dition to effective utilisation of existing machineries. Implementable and sustainable entrepreneurship models will be created in rural areas through upscaling successful initiatives and innovative ideas.
This will be the first phase of the project and based upon its performance, more activities will be supported subsequently, Mishra said.
He said the problem of crop residue burning has intensified over the years, with Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh being the major burning hotspots. Some of the reasons identified for the farmers burning the crop residue in the fields to prepare for the next sowing are: less use as fodder due to declining number of livestock, increased mechanisation and farmers can’t afford to leave part of their fields for composting that takes long period.