Haryana chief secretary Sanjeev Kaushal Friday directed the officers concerned to prepare an advance action plan for crop-residue management ahead of the upcoming season and explore possibilities of new technologies and projects in addition to the existing technologies for ex-situ management. Kaushal presided over a meeting regarding ex-situ management for the upcoming season on Friday. “There has been a significant reduction in the incidents of stubble burning last year and this year also advance action plan should be prepared to decrease the stubble burning incidents. For this, committees should also be constituted at the village level so that the incidents of stubble burning at the ground level can also be closely monitored and farmers can also be made aware of the ill-effects of stubble burning so that they don't burn paddy stubble,” Kaushal told the officers. “in-situ management is being done on a large scale in Haryana and with this, more emphasis is needed on it's management. Costing study of cooperative sugar mills should be conducted to make Biomass Energy Plant, Ethanol Plant and Compressed Biogas Plant more viable. Besides this, their number should also be increased in the State to promote maximum consumption of stubble in the State,” Kaushal added. Director General, Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare department, Hardeep Singh added, “The department is providing subsidies to the farmers for various equipments like straw slashers, shredders, hey-rake and straw balers for ex-situ management so that the farming system can be improved. During the year 2021, 449 straw balers have been provided to the farmers on subsidy for ex-situ management. For this year, 26 industrial units have registered a requirement of 4.25 lakh metric tonnes of stubble”. “Biomass projects have been set up in the state for the consumption of stubble and at present 11 projects are going on, in which 4.48 lakh metric tonnes of stubble is being used and 6.43 lakh metric tonnes have been used in the year 2022-23. Besides this, work on two more biomass power projects and one ethanol plant will also be completed by July 2022. After the completion of these plants, additional use of 4.26 lakh metric tonnes of stubble will be used," Singh added.
