A Burning Free Village becoming an inspiration for others.
By: Rajveer Singh Brar
Tags: CRM, Crop Residue Management, Paddy Straw, Residue Burning, Agriculture

Rice is grown on 35 lakh hectares of the area in Punjab. However, the increase in productivity and area under the rice has led to a huge production of rice straw. Paddy Straw is a good source of nutrients and an important component for the stability of the ecosystem. One ton of rice straw contains 5–8 kg N, 0.7–1.2 kg P, 12–17 kg K, 0.5–1 kg S, 3–4 k Ca, 1–3 kg Mg.

Rice Straw can be managed successfully in-situ by using the latest machinery being provided by govt. at subsidized rates. The use of new generation planters like Happy Seeder, Super Seeder leading to a wider adoption due to direct drilling in standing as well as in loose residue. It also improves water use efficiency by up to 25%. The suppression of weeds with straw mulch might help to reduce herbicide requirements. The farmers who want to grow vegetables need a well-prepared field as compared to the wheat fields also farmers having fields with heavy soils opt for the removal of straw while the incorporation of straw is the first preference of light to medium soil fields.

Farmers from the Gill village of Sultanpur Lodhi sub-division in Kapurthala district are becoming an inspiration to other farmers of Punjab. The whole village led by Sarpanch Narinder Singh has not burnt the paddy straw and did the incorporation using Mulchur, MB Plough for the Potato crop, and sowed wheat using Happy Seeder and Super Seeder.

Narinder Singh S/o Santokh Singh doing the in-situ incorporation of paddy straw into the soil for the last 7 years. Earlier he used the Mulcher and Rotavator for incorporation the straw. With the introduction of Happy Seeder last year now he has adopted this technique and sown wheat crop in standing stubbles. Due to the regular incorporation of straw for the last 7 years, the yield of wheat has been increased to 20 q/acre, which was 15 q/acre 7 years ago. Being a Sarpanch of the village, he inspired farmers from his village to not burn paddy residue and use it to increase the organic carbon in the soil as well as productivity. He started a campaign “Zero Burning Village” and got successful to implement this. Farmers of the Gill village has adopted various techniques to manage the paddy residue based on the next crop grown. For Wheat Crop, most of the farmers are using Happy Seeder and Super Seeder Machine.

One of the farmers Ajit Singh S/o Chanda Singh from the same village has done in-situ incorporation of straw for the third year in a row. He has used the Mulchur and Rotavator to incorporated paddy straw. He said “Yield of Wheat and Paddy has increased to 5–7% as he is incorporating the residue for the last 3 years.

Sucha Singh S/o Pooran Singh belonging to the same village has 24 acres of land and using Paddy Straw as compost in his field. In earlier years he used Rotavator for mixing the straw within the soil and this year he sowed the wheat crop using Super seeder after the use of Mulchur. He Said, “With the came of Super Seeder it becoming easy to sow wheat without any ploughing”.

Another farmer Lakhwinder Singh S/o Gurdeep Singh from the Gill Village has 17 acres of land and he has opted for in-situ incorporation rather than burning. He has sowed the wheat crop using the newly introduced Super Seeder. He stated that “our whole village has taken initiative for zero burnings. By using the Paddy residue we can increase the fertility of the soil and can gain more yield from the crops.