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Pusa bio-decomposer, which is expected to help with the decomposition of paddy stubble after the harvest, will be sprayed on around 5,000 acres of land in Delhi this year, said Delhi’s Environment Minister Gopal Rai Tuesday.
The spraying of the microbial solution will begin from the first week of October, Rai told reporters.
The Delhi government has been pushing for the use of the bio-decomposer developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute as an alternative to stubble burning.
The bio-decomposer, introduced in 2020, was sprayed on 3,000 acres of paddy fields that year, and on around 4,000 acres in 2021, he said.
Applications have been invited from farmers to get the decomposer sprayed. The spraying, as in previous years, will be done free of cost to the farmers.
In the past two years, the Delhi government had purchased capsules from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute that were then mixed with besan and jaggery to make a solution that would be sprayed on the fields. This year, a prepared solution is being purchased to reduce the time taken for the process, Rai said.
In addition to the prepared solution, a powder has also been developed by the institute. The powder is being introduced on an experimental basis to facilitate transportation since transporting the solution itself can be difficult, officers said.
On the spraying of the decomposer in Punjab, Rai said, “It is being sprayed in Punjab on a pilot basis. The time gap is small between harvest and sowing, and scientists are saying that till the time taken for the decomposer to work is reduced, farmers may not use it on a large scale. Now it can take around 15 to 20 days (for the decomposer to work). Now scientists are trying to work on reducing this time period. In Punjab, the pilot project will be in areas where the time gap (between harvest and sowing) is larger.”
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