Punjab farm fires down 90% as Rs 1,325 crore buys 94,456 straw machines

Punjab has cut farm fire incidents by nearly 90% in four years, from 49,922 in 2022 to 5,114 in 2025, on the back of Rs 1,325.35 crore spent on Crop Residue Management (CRM) machinery.

State agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian announced the figures, saying the AAP government's subsidy drive has deployed 94,456 CRM machines across Punjab since the programme began. That's the scale of kit a state needs when it wants paddy straw managed in the field rather than in a plume of smoke.

What has each year delivered?

The year-wise spending shows an uneven but persistent pattern:

• 2022-23: Rs 279.96 crore in subsidy for 27,250 machines
• 2023-24: Rs 168.88 crore for 13,179 machines
• 2024-25: Rs 259.81 crore for 18,179 machines
• 2025-26: Rs 415.7 crore for 13,147 machines

The 2025-26 allocation is the largest single-year spend of the four, even though it covered fewer machines than the opening year. Higher-cost equipment, presumably, or steeper subsidy rates per unit.

What's already lined up for 2026-27?

Plenty, and early. Khudian said farmers are already procuring 22,763 CRM machines for the 2026-27 cycle, backed by nearly Rs 201 crore in subsidy. That's a 73% jump in machine numbers compared with the 13,147 supplied across the whole of the previous year — and it's being secured before the season, not during it.

The minister's framing was blunt: early procurement of over 22,000 machines means Punjab is "fully prepared well in time", letting farmers manage paddy straw scientifically without burning. He appealed to farmers to make optimum use of the subsidised machinery to protect the environment and public health.

What does this change for small farmers?

Two mechanisms stand out. First, 75% of Custom Hiring Centre (CHC) funds have been earmarked for Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS), a channel designed to push machinery access towards small and marginal farmers who can't justify owning a Rs several-lakh baler or zero-till drill outright.

Second, Rs 6 crore has been allocated for bio-decomposer application, delivered under what the government calls a massive IEC — information, education and communication — campaign. In-situ straw decomposition, in plain terms, with a promotional budget attached.

Why the fire numbers matter

The drop from 49,922 fires to 5,114 is the metric that travels furthest, and not just within Punjab. Stubble burning in the state has been blamed for contributing to north India's winter smog, drawing Supreme Court scrutiny and seasonal headlines for a decade. A 90% reduction, if it holds, changes both the political conversation and the agronomic one.

Machinery subsidy is the lever Punjab has pulled hardest, and the numbers suggest it's working better than threat-and-fine enforcement ever did. Whether the 2026-27 figures confirm the trend is the next test — farmers and policymakers alike should watch the fire counts when paddy harvest arrives.