The Kejriwal government is pulling out all the stops to combat stubble burning in the national capital. The government has launched preparations for free bio-decomposer spraying across 5,000 acres of farmland.Â
Delhi Development Minister Gopal Rai, following a high-level meeting with officials and experts, announced that so far 841 farmers have already signed up for the initiative aimed at curbing pollution and promoting sustainable farming practices in both Basmati and non-Basmati paddy fields within the capital.
Giving more details about the meeting, Delhi Development Minister Gopal Rai said, “In order to solve the problem of pollution occurring in the winter season inside Delhi, the Kejriwal government is constantly moving towards making its Winter Action Plan by meeting with different departments.Â
The Delhi Development Minister continued, “All the departments have been assigned different responsibilities on 21 focus points regarding the Winter Action Plan, under which the Environment Department will prepare a joint action plan for it. Stubble burning, included in this year’s 21 focus points, also plays an important role in increasing the problem of pollution in the winter season.”
Minister Gopal Rai said that this year the government will spray bio-decomposer free of cost in more than 5,000 acres of land to decompose the stubble. Right now the farmers are being asked to fill the form. If needed, it will be sprayed in more fields. The Pusa Institute is providing bio-decomposer to the Delhi government.
“Paddy is cultivated only in some parts of Delhi. To prevent pollution from stubble in Delhi, the government sprayed bio-decomposer free of cost last year and its results have been very positive. With its spraying, the stubble decomposed in the fields and an increase in the fertility of the fields was also seen. Another problem faced by the farmers is that the time gap between harvesting of paddy crops and sowing of wheat is less. Therefore, the government has started preparations for its spraying in time, so that there is no delay in the whole exercise and the farmers can get better results,” stated the Delhi Minister.
He shared that the Agriculture Department has been instructed to get the form filled by the farmers soon regarding the spraying of bio-decomposer. This form includes the details of the farmer, how many acres of land he wants to spray and the time of harvesting of the crop. The farmers will also enter the date of spraying in the form, so that arrangements for spraying can be made in their fields accordingly.
“So far 841 farmers have filled out the form. Along with this, awareness campaigns are also being run by the team regarding the spraying of bio-decomposer among the farmers inside Delhi. Spraying of bio-decomposer will start from the last week of September. For this, necessary instructions have been given to all the concerned departments,” Mr Rai said.
