Government providing subsidy for crop residue management machinery to farmers: M

The government is providing subsidy of 50-80% for farmer’s to install machinery to tackle the large quantities of crop wastes, and a provision of Rs. 1,151.80-crore has been made under this scheme for states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCR for two years.

This was stated by the Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Mr. Radha Mohan Singh, while addressing a National Conference on ‘Potential of Waste in Energy Generation and its Challenges’ organised by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare and Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) In New Delhi recently.

Millions of tonnes of agricultural waste are produced in India from agriculture and agricultural enterprises. 70% of the waste is used in the industrial sector and as domestic fuel, while the remaining waste can be converted into bio-components and biofuels, and used in the generation of energy. The efficient management of wastes will ensure that pollution caused by the burning of crop residues is minimized, while ensuring that the soil become more fertile thereby resulting in savings of Rs. 2,000 per hectare from the farmer’s manure cost.

The Minister said that the Agricultural Engineering Division of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) has done remarkable work in the area of bio-energy, specifically generation of biogas from paddy straw biomass.