📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / VeerinderBiroke
Agriculture
Punjab’s No‑Burn Initiative Turns Stubble Management into New Income Stream
✍️ The Indian Express
🗓 30 Oct 2026, 04:32 AM
👁 11
The state’s ban on stubble burning is prompting farmers to adopt management practices that generate additional earnings.
The Punjab government’s strict enforcement of the stubble‑burn ban this season has led to a rapid rise in alternative management methods. Farmers, previously reliant on open‑field burning, are now collecting crop residues and selling them to firms that process the material into bio‑fuel, organic compost and animal feed.
State agencies have rolled out subsidies for baling equipment and provided training on low‑cost collection techniques, making the shift financially viable. Early reports indicate that many smallholders are earning between 5 and 10 percent more per hectare compared with the previous year, thanks to the new revenue stream.
Agricultural experts say the trend could help curb air‑pollution in Delhi‑region while offering a sustainable livelihood boost for Punjab’s agrarian community, provided market demand for processed stubble remains steady.
State agencies have rolled out subsidies for baling equipment and provided training on low‑cost collection techniques, making the shift financially viable. Early reports indicate that many smallholders are earning between 5 and 10 percent more per hectare compared with the previous year, thanks to the new revenue stream.
Agricultural experts say the trend could help curb air‑pollution in Delhi‑region while offering a sustainable livelihood boost for Punjab’s agrarian community, provided market demand for processed stubble remains steady.