Chandigarh, April 20 – The Punjab Government has prepared an action plan of Rs 500 crore for providing Crop Residue Management (CRM) machines to farmers on subsidy and for proper management of stubble to completely curb the problem of stubble burning in the state.
Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian said that the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department has invited online applications from the farmers of the state for getting subsidy on purchase of Crop Residue Management (CRM) machines. He said that these applications can be submitted on the online portal agrimachinerypb.com from April 22 to May 12, 2025.
The Minister said that the Punjab Government has 50% subsidy is being given to individual farmers and 80% subsidy to farmer groups, cooperative societies and gram panchayats on purchase of machines. The aim of this initiative is to ensure easy access of farmers to CRM machines and to ensure a clean and healthy environment for all by encouraging them to use stubble management machinery.
The Agriculture Minister said that this subsidy will be available on CRM machines including Super SMS, Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, Surface Seeder, Smart Seeder, Zero Till Drill, Baler, Rake, Shrub Master/Rotary Slasher, Paddy Street Chopper/Shredder/Mulcher, Crop Reaper, Hydraulic Reversible Mold Board Plough.
Administrative Secretary of the Agriculture Department Dr. Basant Garg said that last year, the state government had provided 17,600 CRM machines on subsidy to individual farmers, cooperative societies and panchayats and also set up 1,331 Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) for the convenience of farmers. Due to these efforts, there was a 70 percent reduction in stubble burning cases during the last season as compared to the year 2023, which came down to just 10,909 last year as compared to 36,663 reported in the year 2023.