• Active fire incidents captured through satellite data on October 28 showed 3,105 active fire incidents in the state, highest in a single day.
• The state has recorded over 15,000 farm fires this paddy season till now.
• Pathankot is the only district which has not seen any stubble-burning case this season.

The Pathankot Model

• Pathankot has the minimum area in the state under paddy cultivation (over 27,500 hectares), but it has not witnessed a single case of farm fire. However, Ropar with 41,000 hectares saw 49 farm fires, while Mohali with 31,000 hectares saw 151 farm fires till October 28. Even Hoshiarpur with 75,000 hectares under paddy has witnessed 189 incidents.
• Pathankot has 27,500 hectares under paddy cultivation during this kharif season, including 2,000 hectares under basmati. A special drive was initiated to motivate farmers not to burn straw by organising awareness camps in all major rice-grown villages.
• Further, we went to schools and made children aware about ill-effects of pollution.
• Hundreds in this district have given up on paddy and gone for traditional crops. Mehrakalan farmer Avtar Singh, who shifted from paddy to maize crop, said this was the best decision he took. The government has just started advocating shifting from paddy to other crops. Maize is bought even before the crop is taken to market as local traders are interested. Further, it needs limited water and labour.
• “Moreover, the straw of paddy and basmati is easily digestible by milch cattle. So, it helps in earning extra income for farmers. Our teams worked hard to ensure that farmers are able to sell their leftover straw to cattle farmers,” said Amrik Singh, an agriculture officer.
• Harinder Singh Bains, Agriculture Officer, Pathankot, said farmers were motivated to sell their paddy straw to dairy farmers of the area as fodder for their cattle. “Dairy farmers bought paddy straw for Rs 1,000-2,000 per acre for combine harvested paddy and for basmati and sharbati they gave up to Rs 4,000 per acre,” Bains said.
• Farmer Ramesh Chandar Sharma from Gulpur village in Pathankot said they do not burn stubble and instead with the help of administration they had Gujjar community members come to their fields and take away the leftover stubble for their cattle. “In return we make Rs 6,000 per acre,” he said.