Despite the district administration issuing challans to farmers for burning of crop stubble in paddy fields even after the strict ban the practice can be seen going on unabated in the rural areas in broad daylight.

While the paddy harvesting is yet to pick up the pace, early sown varieties, mostly sown in the vegetable belts surrounding the city, have already been harvested. In some cases, farmers have already sown potato crop.

“We could not afford to delay sowing of potato by even a single day, so we have to burn the residue to prepare the fields,” stated a farmer. He further added that decomposition of crop residue in fields consumes much time, so the farmers choose to burn the stubble.

Officials of the district administration stated that farm fires were being monitored using remote sensing techniques and teams were being sent to areas reporting cases of stubble burning to take strong action.

Chief Agriculture Officer Gurdial Singh Bal stated that apprehensions of potato farmers were misplaced. Citing the example of Surinder Singh, a farmer from Mannawala Kalan, the official stated the farmer had been sowing potato without burning crop residue for the past five years.

“In fact, the yield of the crop is comparative higher in such fields as when the stubble decomposes, it gives an additional space for potato seeds to grow,” he stated adding that farmers should use combine harvesters fitted with straw management system attachment for stubble crops.

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