Stubble Burning Declined by 57% in 2024

The paddy straw burning events between 15th September and 30th November 2024 in the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have seen a 57 per cent reduction compared to the previous year. 

As per the reports released by the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS) Laboratory, Division of Agricultural Physics, ICAR – Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, the number of stubble-burning incidents was 42962 in 2023, which has been reduced to 18457 events during 2024 for the same period.

Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) is primarily supporting the efforts in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi for combating paddy stubble burning under the Crop Residue Management Scheme being implemented from 2018-19, focusing on both in-situ and ex-situ management of paddy straw.

Under this scheme, financial assistance at 50% of the cost of the machine is provided to the farmers for the purchase of crop residue management machinery and at 80% for the projects costing up to Rs. 30 lakhs is provided to Rural Entrepreneurs (Rural youth & Farmer as an entrepreneur), Cooperative Societies of farmers, Registered Farmers Societies, Farmers Producer Organization (FPOs) and Panchayats for establishment of Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) of crop residue management machines.

The scheme promotes the usage of machines and equipment such as Super Straw Management System, Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, Smart Seeder, Surface Seeder, Zero Till Seed cum Fertilizer Drill etc. for in-situ management of crop residue and Balers and Straw Rakes for collection of straw for further ex-situ utilization.

With a view to enable efficient ex-situ management of paddy straw generated in these states, provisions have been made to establish projects for a paddy straw supply chain with financial assistance at 65% on the capital cost of machinery costing up to Rs. 1.50 crores.

The intervention aims to establish a robust supply chain of paddy straw for various end-user industries in biomass power generation and biofuel sectors.

Under this scheme, during the period from 2018-19 to 2024-25 (as of 28 February 2025), an amount of Rs. 3698.45 Crore have been released to these States and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). 

The states have established more than 41,900 Custom Hiring Centres (CHC) of crop residue management machines and more than 3.23 lakh crop residue management machines have been supplied to these CHCs and individual farmers in these states.