Lucknow, Nov 16 (IANS): In a bid to curb incidents of stubble burning, the Uttar Pradesh government has set a target of distributing 17 lakh bio-decomposers in 2023-24.

This will be more than 28 per cent of 2022-23 when 13,22,250 bio-decomposers were distributed.

According to a state government spokesperson, around 1,66,600 bio-decomposers are in the process of being supplied to farmers in the ongoing financial year.

He said that the state government provided more than 44,000 agricultural equipment for effective crop residue management at 50 per cent subsidy.

The state government has also distributed bio-decomposers to farmers for free and launched large-scale awareness campaigns to check the practice of stubble burning, the spokesperson said.

The government approved a total of 4,439 single agricultural equipment in the 2023-24 fiscal.

Additionally, a total of 7,621 forms have been distributed amongst the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), cooperative societies and gram panchayats.

To increase the effectiveness of the drive against stubble burning, coordination among officials in various departments at the district level, such as Sugarcane, Basic Education, Revenue, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Local Bodies, Police, and Transportation, will be ensured.

He said that the dissemination of information about stubble utilization will be facilitated by promoting units based on crop residue in the neighbouring districts. Task forces are being formed at the village, block, tehsil, and district levels in this regard.