The Government has revised the crop residue management scheme guidelines with a view to enable efficient ex-situ management of paddy straw generated in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi.Provisions have been made to establish  techno-commercial pilot projects for paddy straw supply chain under the bilateral agreement of beneficiary/aggregator (Farmers, Rural entrepreneurs, Cooperative Societies of farmers, Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs) and Panchayats) and Industries utilizing the paddy straw.Financial assistance @ 65% onthe capital cost of machinery costing up to Rs. 1.50 crores is provided by the Government.  Industry as primary promoter of the project has to contribute 25% of the project cost and the balance 10% will be the contribution of beneficiary/aggregator. During next three years, 1.5 million metric tonnes of surplus paddy straw is expected to be collected through this initiative. Assuming a collection capacity of each project as 4500 tons/year,it has been estimated that a total 333 projects will have to be established to collect 1.5 million metric tons of paddy straw. The initiative will supplement the efforts of paddy straw management through in-situ options and will help in reducing the air pollution caused by paddy stubble burning. The intervention aims at establishing a robust supply chain of paddy straw for various end user industries in biomass power generation and biofuel sectors and thus will create avenues fornew investments in these sectorsand alsoopportunities for employment in rural areas.

This information was given by the Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Shri Narendra Singh Tomar in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.

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