Environment Minister Gopal Rai said Tuesday that the Delhi government was spraying the Pusa bio-decomposer on 5,000 acres of basmati and non-basmati rice fields to prevent stubble burning in the capital.
He said that the bio-nutrient would also be sprayed on a trial basis in the fields of the Punjab.
Pusa bio-nutrient developed by the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research (IARI) is a microbial solution that can turn unshelled straw into manure in 15-20 days.
Speaking here at a press conference, Rai said the government in Delhi will be spraying bio-nutrient on 5,000 acres of basmati and non-basmati rice fields for free this year.
He said that the government has set up 21 teams to raise awareness of the effectiveness of the biodegradable component and register farmers who want to apply the solution in their fields.
The minister said the government would not have to prepare a solution as IARI had already read it.
“Here we buy it directly from the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research. Ten liters of solution can be mixed with 200 liters of water and sprayed directly onto one acre, ”he said.
Rai also said the bio-nutrient will be sprayed on 5,000 acres or 2,023 hectares of land in the Punjab.
He said farmers in the Punjab have expressed concern about the time it takes to resolve the breakdown of rice straw, and IARI scientists will look at the problem.
A powdered version of the bio-decomposer is also available.
For the third year in a row, the government of Delhi will be using the Pusa bio-decomposer on agricultural land just outside the capital.
Last year, it was sprayed on 4,300 acres of land owned by 844 farmers in Delhi. By 2020, 310 farmers were using it on 1,935 acres of land.
According to officials, spraying the bio-decomposer costs just 30 rupees per acre.
In 2021, a third party audit to determine the impact of a microbial solution in Delhi found it was 95 percent effective, after which Kejriwal asked the Center to distribute it free of charge to neighboring states.
Along with unfavorable weather conditions, the burning of rice straw in Punjab and Haryana is the main cause of the alarming rise in air pollution levels in the nation’s capital in October and November. Farmers set fire to their fields to quickly remove crop debris before growing wheat and potatoes.
According to IARI, Punjab reported 71,304 farm fires between September 15 and November 30 last year and 83,002 farm fires in the same period in 2020.
Last year, the share of farm fires in Delhi’s PM 2.5 pollution peaked at 48 percent on November 7.
(This story was not edited by our team of editors and was generated from the feed.)
Bollyinside.com provides you with the latest breaking news. Read daily news on Bollyinside, the world’s most popular news portal. Easy, well-researched, and trustworthy paper research for everything you want to read...
© 2022 Bollyinside. All Rights Reserved. Made with Love.