NEW DELHI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in an attempt to curb pollution levels in north India said that it has adopted over 100 villages and 100,000 acres of farm area in Punjab and Haryana to enable zero crop residue burning.
Villages in Ludhiana, Barnala and Patiala districts of Punjab, and Rohtak, Sirsa and Fatehabad of Haryana are the ones adopted by the CII.
The chamber in a statement said that it has created an ecosystem to engage stakeholders, including experts, corporates, state governments, village community and farmer groups, to implement possible solutions to the issue of stubble burning.
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The CII is proactively engaging with over 15,000 farmers to provide farm machinery, organise technical training and massive awareness drives in the adopted villages of Punjab and Haryana, it said.
The intervention will support farmer groups procure a range of farm machineries, including Happy Seeder, Zero Till, Mulcher, among others, and will make these available to farmers on nominal rent. The use of these machineries on a shared basis will lead to sustainable farming, the statement added.
Air quality monitors have also been installed to monitor village level air pollution data, to measure the impact of reduced stubble burning.
The chamber added that over 3,000 school students in Punjab, and youth and corporate volunteers will be joining the CII in this movement to enable zero stubble burning.
The intervention is an extension of the chamber’s pilot project launched last year in 19 villages and 16,000 acres of farmland in Punjab, which had engaged over 3,000 farmers.