Chandigarh
28 October 2018
DIVYA AZAD
New Holland Agriculture, one of the leading agriculture equipment brands,has relaunched its Straw Management campaign in the Kallar Majri village in Patiala district of Punjab. The campaign was launched in presence of officials of Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, senior official from New Holland Agriculture and farmers from Kallar Majri and nearby villages.
The project was originally initiated by the Department of Agriculture (DOA) a few years ago to encourage farmers to use environment friendly techniques to manage crop residue instead of burning in on the fields. Last year, New Holland Agriculture joined the project under its CSR program by providing its machinery for straw management, together with all necessary training and technical support to carry out this initiative.
New Holland Agriculture’s machinery such as Tractors, Combine Harvesters with Chopper, Rakes, Balers, Happy Seeders, Shredo Mulchers and MB Ploughs can be effectively used in the fields, enabling farmers to manage the crop residue instead of burning it. This prevents air-pollution and also preserves nutrients in soil for future plant growth. The techniques enable paddy straw and other crop residues to be collected for use as biomass fuels and alternate uses.
Speaking on the occasion,Mr. Barjinder Singh, Product Manager, Crop Solution at New Holland Agriculture India mentioned, “Approximately 35 million tonnes of paddy straw and stubble are burned every year in Punjab and Haryana alone. New Holland Agriculture offers the most sustainable and economically-viable solutions for crop-residue management, which not only prevent environmental pollution but also offer addition revenues to the farmers. And we proved this last year in Kallar Majri, where not a single incident of crop-residue burning was recorded.”
India produces 105 million tonnes of paddy and 150 million tonnes of straw every year. Paddy harvesting starts in the month of September, and as per the estimates, more than 90% of paddy straw is burnt in fields taking environmental pollution to alarmingly high levels.It is the main cause of SMOG that chokes the entire northern India and causes resinous health issues. Burning of crop residue also damages a substantial amount of nutrients required for growth of plants, which are present in paddy stubble and straw.
Straw burning also results in the damage of organic matter present in soil. To fulfill these deficiencies, farmers use chemical fertilizers, which increases the cost of cultivation and leads to further environmental pollution through leaching of agrochemicals to ground water reservoirs and damaging the air quality through evaporation from soil surface and plant body.
New Holland Agriculture revolutionized hay & straw collection in 1940 at a global level, with the launch of world’s first automatic baler. In India, New Holland balers are playing a significant role in collection of biomass for biomass based power generation by paddy straw & other crop-residues and cogeneration from cane trash in sugar mills.
The effort has not only resulted in providing a sustainable solution for energy generation through renewable energy sources in our power-starved country, but also contributed to a significant control in environmental pollution levels by utilizing the surplus crop residue otherwise burnt in fields. New Holland BC 5060 balers are the market leaders with more than 700 units in operation in India. Each New Holland baler can help produce electricity for 950 rural homes for one year in one paddy season.
New Holland Agriculture aims at helping farmers, contractors and agribusinesses around the world to increase their productivity with more efficient use of precious resources in all aspects of crop production and harvesting.
Company has also established a dedicated customer helpline with toll-free number 1800 419 0124 to support the farmer fraternity, to answer their queries and extend the support required round the clock. The helpline is available in 8 regional languages including Hindi & English.
