AAP MP says Rs 2,500 per acre may be given to farmers to stop stubble burning

AAP MP Raghav Chadha on Tuesday said farmers should be supported by giving them Rs 2,500 per acre to bring down the incidents of stubble burning.

Raising the issue during zero hour in the Rajya Sabha, Chadha said farmers were compelled to burn stubble so that the yield of the next crop was not affected.

After paddy was harvested, the farmers get only 10 to 12 days time to prepare the field for the next crop, Chadha said and added that farmers were left with no choice but to burn the stubble since deployment of machines for cleaning the field entailed Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per acre as expenditure.

The AAP MP said if Rs 2,500 per acre was provided to farmers to bear the expenditure incurred for machines, the incidents of stubble burning would come down to zero in Punjab.

He said out of Rs 2,500, Rs 2,000 could be given by the Central Government while the remaining Rs 500 would be the responsibility of the state government.

The AAP MP said the long time solution of the problem could be crop diversification with the farmers switching to cultivation of cotton, corn and oilseed instead of paddy.

While paddy is not consumed much by the people in Punjab, the farmers starred growing the crop to feed the vast number of paddy eating Indians living in other states, Chadha said.

He added that despite problems, incidents of stubble burning in Punjab has come down by over 70 per cent. On the other hand, stubble burning has gone up in states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, etc, he claimed.