Photo Source: Babushahi Bureau
Punjab cuts farm fires by 94%, wins SKOCH Silver Award for Environment
Babushahi Bureau
Chandigarh, April 10, 2026: Punjab’s aggressive push to tackle crop residue burning has earned national recognition, with the state receiving the SKOCH Silver Award 2025 in the Environment category, Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian announced on Friday.
Addressing a press conference, the minister said Punjab has achieved a remarkable 94% reduction in farm fire incidents—dropping from 83,002 in 2020–21 to just 5,114 in 2025–26. He credited the achievement to the sustained efforts of the government led by Bhagwant Singh Mann, along with the cooperation of farmers and institutions.
Calling it a “major environmental breakthrough,” Khudian said the state transformed a long-standing crisis into an opportunity through measures such as subsidised machinery, real-time monitoring, custom hiring centres, and record financial support.
Under the Crop Residue Management (CRM) scheme, farmers, Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs), and panchayats are being provided 50–80% subsidy on machinery. The government has earmarked ₹600 crore this year to facilitate the purchase of 25,000 CRM machines.
During 2025–26, around 13,000 machines have already been procured, with ₹427 crore released as subsidy. To further expand coverage, the Agriculture Department is accepting online applications from April 1 to April 24, 2026.