Guidelines for Providing One-Time Financial Assistance for Establishment of Paddy Straw Based Pelletisation and Torrefaction Plants – EQ Mag

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, a central sector scheme on crop residue management 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.

During the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23, Rs. 3138.17 crores have been released (Punjab – Rs.1426.45 crores, Haryana – Rs. 916.71 crores, Uttar Pradesh – Rs. 713.67 crores, NCT of Delhi – Rs. 6.05 Crores and ICAR– Rs. 75.29 crores). The states have distributed more than 2.40 lakh machines to the individual farmers and to more than 37000 CHCs in these 4 States, which also include more than 4500 Balers & Rakes which are used for collection of straw in the form of bales for further ex-situ utilization.

In 2022, the Scheme has been merged with Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization (SMAM) and SMAM has been merged with Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana. The state-wise and year wise funds and the number of crop residue management machines supplied to individual farmers and Custom Hiring Centersare given at Annexure 1.

The Government has framed guidelines for providing one-time financial assistance for establishment of paddy straw based pelletisation and torrefaction plants. Under these guidelines, individual entities /entrepreneurs / companies, interested in setting up pelletisation and torrefaction plants, using only paddy straw generated in the NCT of Delhi, States of Punjab, Haryana, NCR districts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh can obtain a one-time grant on capital investment. An initial corpus of Rs. 50 crores have been earmarked for utilisation through the guidelines. A total of 5.27 crore have been sanctioned for setting up of 06 paddy based straw pelletisation and torrefaction plants with total capacity of 23.75 TPH. The pellet produced from these plants could be utilized by industries including thermal power plants.

Annexure 1

State-wise and year-wise funds released

Number of crop residue management machines supplied to individual farmers and Custom Hiring Centers

This information was given by Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Shri Ashwini Kumar Choubey in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.