KANPUR: The Unnao district administration has launched a unique barter scheme to find a permanent solution to the practice of stubble burning by farmers.
“Under the scheme, the farmers will be provided one trolley of bio-fertiliser against the submission of two trolleys of stubble across 135 ‘gaushalas’,” district magistrate Ravindra Kumar informed TOI on Monday.
For over five years, burning rice stubble has caused severe air pollution in the region. Estimates show that 15-20 million tonnes of paddy stubble burnt in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh emit PM2.5 that is 4-5 times more than the annual PM2.5 emissions from all vehicles plying in Delhi.
Acting tough, over 1,100 FIRs have been lodged against 2,000 farmers across the state for stubble burning.
Thirty-five-year-old Sanjay is a rice farmer in Gadan Kheda village and he hasn’t burnt rice straw after he came to know about the barter scheme.
“I am preparing bundles of rice straw to further transport it on my tractor-trolley to a ‘gaushala’ to exchange it with bio-fertiliser,” he said.
Earlier, he used to burn the stubble.
“I had also availed the barter scheme of district administration. Such an initiative will not only lessen the increasing pollution level, but the bio-fertiliser provided by the ‘gaushala’ authorities will also increase my yield, besides our stray cattle will now no more die of hunger due to sufficient fodder stock across the ‘gaushalas’ in the district. Also, one will also not land in a legal tussle,” said Shiv Kumar, another farmer.
“We have received an overwhelming response from the farmers. There are in total 135 temporary ‘gaushalas’ in the district. Nearly, 1000 quintals of stubble had already been received by officials across these ‘gaushalas’. It’s an effective solution to the problem of burning stubble and it will only make the soil more fertile,” the DM said.
“Also, directions have been given to the revenue department officials to spread awareness among farmers against stubble burning and for proper disposal of crop residue by involving village committees and village heads,” he added.