Paddy residue management in Punjab: Farmers’ choice among various practices

The disposal of paddy residue in a beneficial way is a very serious problem of Punjab state. Keeping this in view, the present study was carried out in south-western Punjab during 2020–21. On an average 13.72 Qtls of paddy residue was generated per acre. Among different methods of paddy residue management, complete burning emerged as the most preferred method, with 68 farmers on about 49 per cent of total paddy area followed by partial burning (35 farmers on 17.80% area), complete removal (31 farmers on 19.94% area), and complete incorporation (17 farmers on 13.31%area). About 60 per cent of the surplus paddy residue was utilised in industries and the remaining was incorporated into the soil. No usage of paddy waste as feed, fuel or littering material was observed. Among different CRM machines/implements, the majority of farmers (63.91%) used reaper on about 64 per cent area, followed by raker and baler (31% farmers on 26% area each) and Happy Seeder (10% farmers on 8% area). The technological constraints were ranked first with an average mean score of 158.80 followed by economical, management and marketing problems. The study suggests need to create more awareness among farmers about the extent of pollution generated by burning of paddy straw in the fields and its’ related hazards along with steps to encourage their participation in different trainings/demonstrations related to CRM and following crop diversification, adoption of short duration paddy varieties and timely availability of the paddy residue management technologies on custom hiring basis.