InTech

 CHAFF BURNING According to The Hindu,Burning stubble, the rice chaff left over after harvesting, is linked to winter air-pollution in Punjab as well as down-wind Delhi. In 2013, the National Green Tribunal issued a directive to Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh asking them to ban such stubble burning. The Centre has spent about ₹600 crore in subsidising farm equipment via village cooperatives to enable farmers to access them and avoid stubble burning. In 2018, Punjab had disbursed about 8,000 farm implements to individual farmers and set up 4,795 custom hiring centres, from where such machinery could be leased. The cost of hiring these machines was about ₹5,000 an acre. However, the success of these efforts has been mixed even though stubble-fires in 2018 were fewer than in 2017 and 2016, according to satellite maps by independent researchers. In 2018, Punjab had disbursed about 8,000 farm implements to individual farmers and set up 4,795 custom hiring centres, from where such ...