Farmers turn motivators, lead fight against farm fires

More than any environmentalist, it is the farmers themselves who have become the biggest motivators for their own community urging them to shun the practice of burning stubble.

Sarwan Singh of Naseerwal village of Sultanpur Lodhi has been going around in villages of Kapurthala district, informing farmers about the benefits of using a combination of plough, rotavator and mulcher machines for in-situ management of paddy straw.

Growing paddy on 100 acres, the farmer says, “Officials from the Agriculture Department and Punjab Agricultural University have prepared a schedule of seminars and demonstrations for me. It has been 10-12 years since I stopped setting my fields on fire. Now, almost 95 per cent farmers in my area, most of whom follow three-crop-a-year pattern of paddy-potato-maize, are using the in-site technique and are getting increased yield of potato, ranging from 80 to 100 quintals/acre. The fertiliser requirement has also gone down to almost half.”

Like him, there are other farmers in Kapurthala, including Gurnam Singh Mutti and Hardev Singh, whose fields are used as demonstration sites by the Agriculture Department and PAU teams.

For the farmers preferring ex-situ management, there are several options available in the region. MD of the Rana Sugar Mills and Sultanpur Lodhi MLA Rana Inder Partap says he has been going around and telling farmers not to burn paddy straw and instead use the services of baler operators.

“We have tied up with people collectively owning 125-150 balers in the area. They lift 20,000 tonne paddy straw every year covering around 1 lakh acres. We have set up stockyards for paddy straw around our two sugar mill units at Baba Bakala and Tarn Taran. Both our mills use paddy straw for fuel in boilers,” he said.

Likewise, Nakodar-based farmers have also an option of ex-situ management of paddy straw. About 80,000 tonne stubble from 40 villages in the area is fed to the 6MW private power plant at Bir Pind here.

Nakodar MLA and farmer herself Inderjit Kaur Mann says, “Those operating baler machines in Nakodar, Mehatpur, Nurmahal and even Shahkot areas have been bringing in straw to the plant. The plant also uses wheat and maize straw as raw material. The plant has been operational for the past 12-13 years and has been a huge profitable asset for the owner. There are hardly any farmers in our area who set farms on fire. I have urged the administration to issue a strict warning to anyone indulging in such a practice this time to end the menace completely.”

Even the administrative officials are on the alert. A complete roadmap to check farm fires has been planned in Hoshiarpur, which saw 118 fire cases last year. “We shall be managing 50 per cent stubble via in-situ measures. About 25 per straw will be diverted to the Gujjar community that uses it as fodder for animals. For the remaining 25 per cent straw, we have tied up with the industry in the district as well as nearby areas of Himachal for use as fuel. We also have a paddy straw pellet manufacturing unit in Hoshiarpur that utilises 10,000 tonne straw,” said Komal Mittal, Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiarpur.