Scientist-Farmer Interaction on Crop Residue Management Organised

14 October 2025, Ludhiana

ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Ludhiana organised ‘Farmer-Scientist Dialogue on Crop Residue Management’ today at their premises.

Dr. ML Jat, Secretary (DARE) & Director General (ICAR) chaired the program while Dr. Rajbir Singh, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Extension) ICAR, and Dr. SN Jha, Deputy Director General (Agricultural Engineering) ICAR, were the co-chairs.

Dr. Jat highlighted the imperativeness of zero crop residue burning vis-à-vis various strategies and options. He stressed upon the need to spread awareness on misleading narratives in favour of crops residue burning. He stressed upon taking pertinent measures for ensuring mandatory attachment to each combined harvesting cum thrashing machines, especially in areas prone to crops residue burning. Dr Jat further emphasised upon the need to review subsidy on machines such as super seeder that have been found responsible for promoting burning. He expressed his satisfaction on the measures taken by the state government regarding law-and-order enforcement on checking crops residue burning this year.

Dr. Rajbir Singh expressed his concern on the under-utilization of subsidised machines under the national initiative to stop crops residue management. He further stressed upon the need for monitoring of various malpractices in the process of implementation of subsidy on crops residue management machines. Dr. Singh assured his commitment towards mission zero crops residue burning under the active involvement of KVKs.

Dr. Parvender Sheoran, Director, ICAR-ATARI Ludhiana, Dr. MS Bhullar, Director Extension Education, PAU Ludhiana and Dr. RS Grewal, Director Extension Education, GADVASU Ludhiana were some of the other distinguished participants in the event.

Earlier Dr. Parvender Sheoran, Director, ICAR ATARI, Ludhiana, presented an overview of activities carried out in ICAR Zone-1 during the recent past. Dr. Sheroran highlighted various initiatives undertaken for improving administrative efficiency in ATARI Ludhiana and KVKs of the zone.

Various progressive farmers expressed their experiences on crop residue management and policy needs for further strengthening the momentum in this direction. Provision of full subsidy to individual small farmers on crops residue management machines was one of the important demands of farmers.

(Source: Director, ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research Institute, Ludhiana)