MALERKOTLA-BASED FARMER MAKES ₹16L BUCKS BY SELLING PADDY STUBBLE
Chandigarh, October 15: Gurpreet Singh Kuthala, 26 years old farmer from village Ferozepur Kuthala in Malerkotla district, has been earning well from the paddy straw, which most of the farmers considered a liability, as he didn’t pull down the shade when a window of opportunity appears.
He grabbed the opportunity by buying ex-situ machines a Straw Rake and a Baler provided by the Punjab Government on 50 per cent subsidy. The progressive farmer is 12th pass and cultivating a total of 40 acres of land (ten acres his own and 30 acres on lease). He had signed a contract with Sangrur RNG Bio Gas Plant, Panjgaraian to supply 12000 quintals paddy straw bales last year and earned around Rs 16 lakh by selling the paddy straw.
Now, this young farmer with the help of his friend Sukhwinder Singh has bought four new machines Balers and Rakes two each.
Expressing hope to earn over Rs 1 crore this year, the young farmer said that he has inked a contract to supply 18K quintals paddy straw bales at Rs 160 per quintal and Rs 10 for transportation of per bale to Sangrur RNG Bio Gas Plant, Panjgaraian in this season, besides, contracting with Pusav Beler, Mansa to provide 5000 quintals paddy straw bales in Amritsar district and 5000 quintals for local Gujjar community.
He informed that he will store around 20,000 quintals bales from his own land and other nearby villages and will supply it to paper mills, Bio-CNG plants at approx Rs 280 in off season.
He said that he will also collect around 18k quintals bales from around 1125 acres in Malerkotla district.
Congratulating the young farmer for joining the state government’s endeavour to save the environment, Punjab Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian urged all the farmers to take an inspiration from the progressive farmer Gurpreet Singh and be a part of Chief Minister S Bhagwant Mann led Punjab Government’s anti-crop residue burning campaign for larger interests of whole human kind.
The Agriculture Minister informed that the state government around 24,000 crop residue management (CRM) machines including Surface Seeders are being provided at subsidized prices to farmers of the state during this harvesting season to curb the paddy straw burning incidents and manage the crop residue effectively.