BALER
MACHINE - AGRICULTURE (MAINS)
Q. Baler
Machines play a pivotal role in stubble compression and stubble management.
Discuss its significance in the present day issues of stubble burning and
balancing farmer's income. (10 marks, 150 words)
NOTES:
News: How baler machines help manage
stubble
What's
in the news?
●
With the problem of farm fires being taken
up by the Supreme Court, a machine that facilitates ex situ (off site) stubble
management has been in demand in Punjab.
Baler
Machine:
About:
●
Balers play a pivotal role in stubble compression, acting as
hydraulic presses to compact crop residues into dense, manageable packages.
These compressed stubbles are securely bound using twine, wire, or strapping.
●
Baler’ machines have been around for a
decade, and currently around 2,000 of them operate in Punjab.
●
Of these 1,268 are highly subsidised
(50-80%) under the Centre’s Crop Residue Management (CRM) scheme.
●
Balers compress agricultural residue into
manageable and transportable bales.
●
These bales are transported to factories
or dumping sites for ex-situ management.
Benefits:
- Offer ex-situ
management: It eliminates the problems of
in-situ management of stubble using happy seeder such as leaving the
fields vulnerable to insect attacks and expensive machines.
- Income to Farmers: The
bales can easily be transported to factories and farmers can generate
income out of that.
- Easily manageable: Easy
transportation of bales and easy management of crop residues for ethanol
making and pelletisation.
- Reduce the Air
pollution: Effective management of crop
residues will reduce the Delhi smog incidents.
- Multifaceted
benefits: Management of crop reduction by
baler machines will fetch revenue to farmers, create a value chain for
paddy straw for further processing (ethanol or biofuel making) and
finally, reduce the Air pollution.
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Crop residue management scheme in-situ
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Revised Crop residue management guidelines for
Ex-situ management
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- To
support the efforts of the Governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh
and NCT of Delhi to prevent air pollution caused due to stubble burning
and to subsidize machinery required for management of crop residue.
- It
is a central sector scheme on
crop residue management that has been implemented since 2018-19.
- Under this
scheme, financial assistance @ 50% is provided to the farmers for
purchase of crop residue management machinery and @ 80% is provided to
Coop. Societies, FPOs and Panchayats for establishment of Custom Hiring
Centres (CHC).
- Financial
assistance to the States and ICAR is also provided for undertaking
information, education and communication activities for mass awareness
of farmers on crop residue management.
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- It
is a techno-commercial pilot project for Paddy Straw Supply Chain will
be established under the bilateral agreement between the
Beneficiary/Aggregator and Industries utilizing the paddy straw.
- The
beneficiary or aggregator can be Farmers, rural entrepreneurs,
Cooperative Societies of Farmers, Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs)
and Panchayats.
- The
govt. shall provide financial assistance on the capital cost of
machinery and equipment.
- Project
proposal-based financial assistance will be extended for machines and
equipment such as higher HP tractors, cutters, tedder, medium to large
balers, rakers, loaders, grabbers and tele-handlers.
- State
Governments shall approve these projects through the project sanctioning
committee.
- The
Centre and state governments will jointly provide financial support of 65 percent of the project cost, while the
industry as primary promoter of the project will contribute 25 per cent.
- The
remaining 10% will be contributed by the beneficiary or aggregator.
- The
land for storage of the collected paddy straw will be arranged and
prepared by the beneficiary as may be guided by the end use industry.
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