Needless to mention that crop residue burning in north-west India is one of the major concerns for researcher, changes agent, policy planners, farmers and civil society not only in farming but also for “one-health”; soil, plant, human animal & environments.
Several management options have been developed & advocated to address the issue. However, from a long-term sustainability perspective of agriculture and soil health a new scheme of subsidizing the machinery & equipment for rice residue managements has already been launched by the Government.
In this context PAMETI in collaboration with department of Punjab Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare organized a two-day training on “Rice Residue Management” for the extension functionaries of State Department of Agriculture and Allied Sectors and Progressive farmers from 4 -5 September, 2018 which was attended by 24 participants.
Dr H S Dhaliwal, Director PAMETI inaugurated the training and narrated that burning causes serious threats to human & animal health, soil health, environment, bio-diversity & traffic etc. Dr Dhaliwal also explained the Comparative Economics of different In-Situ Rice Management Alternatives.
Experts from PAMETI, Department of Microbiology, Farm machinery and power engineering, Microbiology & Department of Veterinary Extension, GADVASU discussed the various options for managing the crop residue in the situ and off the situ. A Panel discussion was organized by Mr. Lakhwinder Singh Brar, Deputy Director-Marketing, PAMETI to identify the reasons for burning of crop residues in the fields.
Narrow window between harvesting of paddy & sowing of wheat, scarcity of labour, high cost of residue removal from the field and use of combines (Without SMS) in harvesting the crops were the main reasons quoted by the participants.
Dr Dhaliwal proposed a vote to thanks to the extension functionaries and farmer for attending the training session and he said it was an honor for PAMETI to train the staff from agricultural and allied department and progressive farmers for such a noble cause of conserving environment.
Source:http://www.pau.edu/
