Farmers to be sensitized on impact of burning of crop residue on soil

Hailakandi, Jan 2: The District Agriculture Office, Hailakandi will embark on a drive to sensitize farmers on the impact of burning of crop residue on the soil leading to environmental degradation under the ambit of tiol Policy for Magement of Crop Residues (NPMCR).

District Senior Agricultural Development Officer, AR Ahmed said sensitizing the farmers on the impact of burning of crop residue on soil fertility was the need of the hour, stated a press release. “Burning of crop residue has unfortutely become a common practice among the farmers to clear the fields for sowing of Rabi crops. This practice of burning the biomass has intensified in recent years, causing loss of nutrients and elevating soil temperature impacting soil properties. It also emits large amount of particulates with smoke which are hazardous to health,” said Ahmed.

He said only concerted efforts on the part of the State machinery, including the departments of Agriculture and Horticulture, and State Pollution Control Board would go a long way in checking burning of crop residue in the interest of sustaining the soil nutrients and preventing environmental degradation.  “All the departments have to make an all-out effort to educate the farmers by taking up training and orientation programmes and enforce appropriate action to ensure that this pollution causing and soil disabling practice of burning crop residue is stopped forthwith,” said the senior agriculture official.

Necessary technological interventions and diversified uses to curb paddy residue burning resorted to by farmers to get the paddy fields ready for sowing of Rabi crops have to be adopted to prevent loss of soil fertility and environmental degradation, said Ahmed. “The technological  interventions encompass incorporation of crop residue into soil through adoption of conservation agriculture; preparation of compost/vermin compost and its utilization as farmyard manure; use of crop residue for mushroom cultivation; incentivizing purchase of happy seeder, shredder, zero seed-cum-fertilizer drill, facilitation of in-situ magement of crop residue and straw as surface mulching; and extending subsidy to the farmers for hiring machineries for resource conservation,” said Ahmed.

Other interventions for diversified uses of crop residue are fuel for power plant and production of ethanol, using straw in paper/board/panel making and also as packaging material, besides using it as fodder and in brick making, said the official.

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