National Dialogue on Stubble Management for Circular Economy

25th October 2023, Karnal

Natural Resource Management Division, ICAR, has organised one-day National Dialogue on Stubble Management for Circular Economy in collaboration with DA&FW, Ministry of Agriculture, GoI today at ICAR- Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal under the chairmanship of Dr. Himanshu Pathak, Secretary, DARE and DG, ICAR, New Delhi (Online).

The aim of the dialogue is to reach a consensus on the integrated use of both in-situ and ex-situ management approaches to develop site specific strategies for effective management of stubble in an economic way at the field level to achieve the goal of mission zero burning. The meeting had the participation of various institutes State Agri. Departments, KVKs, Manufacturers, NGOs, Civil societies and Farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

  

Dr S. K. Chaudhari, Deputy Director General (NRM) appreciated all the stakeholders to assemble at single platform to churn out the effective strategies for better management of technologies and machines. He insisted the farmers to adopt in-situ management practices for the crop residue since ex-situ practices leads transfer of farmer’s field nutrition to other places.

Dr. R K Singh, Assistant Director General (Extn.), emphasised the need of cooperative model in addressing the issue of stubble burning and shared the experience of successful farmers in shunning this mal-practice.

Earlier, Dr. Rajbir Singh, Assistant Director General (AAF&CC), briefed about the necessity of this National Dialogue on stubble management. He highlighted the saving of rice residue on field can save Rs 5000/- per hectare with 15-20 % water savings.

Dr. P. K. Singh, Agriculture Commissioner, GoI urged that the available machines for residue management should be utilized to full capacity and state governments should take proactive actions. He also emphasised that time has come to integrate in-situ and ex-situ management so that the Mission of Zero Burning can be translated into reality.

Dr. Inderjeet Singh, Vice Chancellor, GADVASU, Ludhiana and Dr. Dheer Singh, Director, NDRI emphasised the use of rice stubble for animal feed by its fortification and silage making.

Dr. B. R. Kamboj, Vice Chancellor, CCS HAU Hisar, pointed out development of single multipurpose machinery for the farmers for in-situ management with maximum use efficiency. He urged all the stakeholders to cooperate and coordinate all the activities in a cohesive way.

Dr. Gurbachhan Singh, Former Chairman, ASRB raised the important issue of efficient use of machinery for ex-situ and in-situ management. He urged the scientists, stakeholders and the farmers to work in a missionary mode for selfless services to stop stubble burning.

Dr. Mukesh Jain, Director, NIMTC, Hisar briefed about the machineries available to farmers for stubble management at farmer’s door step.

Earlier, Dr. R K Yadav, Director, ICAR-CSSRI, Karnal welcomed all the dignitaries and delegates on this important national dialogue on stubble management.

More than 500 farmers and other stakeholders including manufacturers, owners of CHCs, NGOs, representatives from civil societies etc. participated in the Dialogue.

(Source: Natural Resource Management, ICAR)