Farmer’s Revenue
Stubble burning also causes soil erosion, kills beneficial soil organisms and emits harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide and methane along with particulate matter. According to ecologists, stubble burning also takes a toll on micro-organisms and other small creatures such as earthworms that help enrich soil fertility. In order to eliminate the practice of burning stubble and also retain fertility lost in the soil, the farmer needs to incur expenses :-
- Labour cost in burning the stubble.
- Adding more fertilizer than normally required
- Increased water consumption thus leading to increased power consumption.
- Labour and machinery cost on additional ploughing efforts on the filed in order to eliminate residual ash left on the field after burning.
The cost incurred per acre in carrying out the above activities is estimated to be around INR 4000 of which around INR 2400 is subsidized by the Local Government, which is often not actually paid to the farmer. Assuming the subsidy is fully paid to the farmer, he is still out of pocket of about INR 1600 per acre.
This project envisages to remove the stubble from the field using State of the Art machinery at no cost to the farmer thus eliminating expenses presently incurred by the farmer. This will help the farmer to save around INR 4000 per acre and avail the subsidy of INR 2400 per acre paid by the Government. As a result, the farmer is benefited with the additional revenue .