950 applications for subsidised farm machinery approved for in-situ management of crop residue in District Ludhiana

Ludhiana, September 10, 2019: In a bid to save environment from pollution, the farmers are being provided subsidy on purchasing farm machinery for in-situ paddy straw management. For this purpose, the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has approved 960 applications of farmers. This subsidy is to be provided to the farmers under In-Situ Management of Crop Residue Scheme 2019. Dr Baldev Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Ludhiana, informed that the farmers would be provided subsidy for purchase of happy seeder, reversible hydraulic MB plough, paddy straw multure/chopper, zero till drill and 50% subsidy is to be provided for fitting super SMS on combines, and 80% subsidy is to be provided to 210 farmer groups that have joined together. He informed that a district-level committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal has issued clearances to the beneficiary farmers for purchase of machinery and the work on issuing of subsidy would also start in coming days. Under this scheme, the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department and Cooperative Department have jointly given subsidy of Rs 23.68 crore on 2,623 machines to farmers/cooperative societies in district Ludhiana last year. He appealed the farmers to take benefit of the scheme. The Chief Agriculture Officer has appealed to the farmers to not burn paddy straw and other crop residue keeping in mind the 550th year Parkash Purab celebrations of Shri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the first Sikh guru, who have always advocated saving the environment. He said that lakhs of people would be visiting Punjab for the 550th year Parkash Purab celebrations and it becomes our duty to save environment.