NABARD to train villagers for the September-October campaign Ludhiana, September 18 The National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), Punjab Regional Office, today launched a campaign against paddy straw burning (Crop Residue Management) in as many as 320 villages of Ludhiana district during a district-level meeting presided over by Pradeep Agrawal, Deputy Commissioner, Ludhiana, at Hotel Friends Regency, opposite Mini Secretariat, today. Rishipal Singh, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Development), was also present. The meeting was attended by Harjeet Singh Dhaliwal, Director, PAMETI; Rattan Singh, former director, PNB FTC; Baldev Singh, Chief Agriculture Officer, Ludhiana; Jaspreet Singh Khera, project director, ATMA; Davinder Singh, district manager, Ludhiana Central Cooperative Bank, and officers from the Horticulture and Agriculture Department. Parveen Bhatia, DDM, NABARD, Ludhiana, coordinated the programme. PAU/ATMA and PAMETI experts discussed about sowing made with happy seeders, insitu sowing and possible alternate use of straw. Agrawal appreciated the efforts being taken by the NABARD to curb stubble burning. He said with the efforts of all relevant departments, stubble burning has been reduced remarkably last year. It was the need of the hour to make farmers aware about the ill-effects of stubble burning, he added. Bhatia informed that paddy-wheat was the major crop rotation occupying an area of 29.7 lakh ha and 35.06 lakh ha, respectively. With high mechanisation and extensive agriculture practices in Punjab, 80 per cent of wheat and 90 per cent of paddy was harvested by combine harvesters. It was estimated that around 20 million tonnes of paddy straw was generated and about 75 to 80 per cent of it is burnt in fields, he added. To address the environmental problems accentuated by crop residue burning, there is a constant need to educate the farmers. Hence, the NABARD Punjab regional office is conducting a campaign this year to spread the message of crop residue management and crop diversification to all paddy growing villages through 320 village-level cluster awareness programmes and other mass awareness media using IEC (Information, Education and Communication) techniques in Ludhiana district. Training programme ‘Master Trainers’, trained by the NABARD, will train village-level workers, who shall be working at cluster/village level. The campaign has three levels of programmes — district, block and village-level. The campaign will run during September-October 2019 before the paddy harvesting starts. Teams comprising two village-level workers to facilitate the programme at designated villages of the district, involving youth volunteers, panchayat members, farmers and women will be constituted. To address the environmental problems accentuated by crop residue burning, there is a constant need to educate farmers. Hence, the NABARD Punjab regional office is conducting a campaign this year to spread the message of crop residue management and diversification to all paddy growing villages through 320 village-level cluster awareness programmes and other mass awareness media using IEC (Information, Education and Communication) techniques in Ludhiana district.

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