The Fact News Service
Fazilka, December 6
With the multi-pronged planning drafted and implemented by the district administration and pushing various methods to motivate the farmers, 35 percent reduction in the stubble burning incidents have been recorded in the Fazilka district. Earlier, Fazilka was among the districts with the highest number of stubble burning cases but this year only 1854 cases of farm fire have been reported as compared to 2856 cases of the previous year.
It is worthwhile to mention that among these cases, 197 are related to 44 villages of Guru Harsahai which falls under the Agriculture Department of Ferozepur district but owes to Revenue district Fazilka.
While expressing thanks to those who helped the administration to get the number down, Deputy Commissioner Dr. Senu Duggal said that reducing the farm fire cases in Fazilka district was a big challenge as the district sans any large industry based on consumption of stubble, but the district administration achieved this goal by working as a team and establishing direct contact with the farmers. She also appealed to the entrepreneurs to come forward to set up straw based industries in the district as there is a lot of potential in the district.
With an area of 1.01 lakh hectares under paddy and basmati, the district produced 5.87 lakh tonnes of Crop Residue. The district administration coordinated well with the industry outside the district and some small units in the district, to send them 162200 MT of Paddy Stubble under ex-situ techniques.
Deputy Commissioner Dr. Senu Duggal further said that in order to reduce the cases of stubble burning in the district, the administration had planned its IEC activities since September and every method was used to stop farmers from burning stubble.
Under the exclusive project, paddy stubble was sent to Cattal Ponds (Gaushala) for use as animal fodder as well as to manage stubble. Approximately 11000 quintals of paddy stubble collected in the Gaushalas of the district.
In September 289 and October 285 farmer training camps were organized at the village level in the district, briefing the disadvantages of stubble burning to the farmers and imparting training to the farmers how to sow wheat by in-situ method.
Deputy Commissioner also thanked the media for supporting this awareness campaign.
Chief Agriculture Officer, Gurmeet Singh Cheema said that the department organized 15 exhibitions to demonstrate the new Crop Residue Management machines, 15 school-level awareness competitions and run two awareness vans to cover each village twice to mobilise people. In this regard, agricultural literature was delivered from house to house. Under a subsidised scheme, 2028 machines were also provided to the farmers.
Awareness rallies were conducted in the villages through all the rural 230 schools of the district to make parents aware. About 920 environment friends (Vatavaran Mittra) were recruited who Sensitised their parents not to burn straw in their respective villages. Through poster making competitions in 200 schools, the student army was trained to make their parents aware. Street plays were conducted in the villages. Farmers who did not burn stubble were awarded. To ensure the reach of Machines to every farmer for stubble management, a nodal officer was appointed for each village from other departments including the agriculture department who assisted the farmers at the village level. Similarly, the surface seeding technique was also given a major boost, with which wheat can be sown in the cheapest way. The Asha workers, conveyed the message of not burning stubble to the women farmers in an impressive way.
