CRM programme helps Punjab, Haryana villages to move away from stubble burning

Awareness campaigns and access to shared farm machinery under a crop residue management (CRM) initiative supported by HDFC Bank Parivartan and introduced by the CII Foundation are helping farmers across various villages in Punjab and Haryana move away from stubble burning.

Some among them are Paramjeet Singh, who farms on around 3.5 acres of land in Lamba village of Haryana’s Fatehabad district; Gurveer Singh, who cultivates on 9 acres of land in Chima village of Punjab’s Ludhiana district; and Jora Singh and Manjinder Singh, who manage around 20 acres and 35 acres of land, respectively, in Majhi village of Sangrur district in Punjab.

Their decision to adopt sustainable CRM practices has helped improve soil health and reduce stubble burning in their villages.

Paramjeet Singh cultivates paddy, wheat and potato across his small holding of 3.5 acres. Before the CRM initiative reached his village, stubble burning remained a practical solution for him.

HDFC Bank Parivartan and CII Foundation’s CRM interventions improved machinery access to him through the local cooperative. He adopted the ‘super seeder’ across his entire 3.5-acre farm for mulching and incorporating paddy straw directly into the soil while sowing wheat in a single pass.

Highlighting the impact of this initiative, a media statement said costs fell not just from cheaper residue management, but from a cascade of downstream savings — lower fertiliser needs as organic matter returned to the soil, reduced weedicide use and better moisture retention that cut irrigation cycles.

It said that the cooperative model helped drive over 90 per cent non-burning compliance by 2025 in Kawalgarh village’s Ratia block of Fatehabad.

The 29-year-old Gurveer Singh, who has been farming nine acres of land since 2015 in Chima village, was burning around 22,500 kg of paddy each kharif season.

In October 2023, he learned about CRM practices through village awareness campaigns and society-level meetings introduced by the CII Foundation with support from HDFC Bank Parivartan. The initiative provided both technical exposure and access to machinery through local tool banks.

Wheat sowing that had previously required burning followed by multiple rounds of field preparation was now completed in a single operation. Costs that had run to ₹2,000-2,500 per acre dropped to around ₹1,000 per acre.

The media statement said that nearly 90 per cent of farmers across Chima village, where the CRM programme has operated since April 2024, had adopted non-burning practices by October 2025. This helped save approximately 887 acres of land from stubble burning.

For more than four decades Jora Singh harvested paddy, burnt the straw and sowed wheat within a window of barely 15 days on 20 acres in Majhi village. Paddy straw left behind after each harvest was around 50,000 kg across his fields every season.

Renting the right machinery privately cost ₹1,800-2,300 per acre, and availability during the peak sowing window was never guaranteed.

The statement said Jora Singh attended an awareness camp conducted jointly by HDFC Bank Parivartan and the CII Foundation in September 2024. The CRM initiative that brought the ‘super seeder’ to the village cooperative helped mulch standing straw and sow wheat in a single pass, within the same narrow window that had previously left burning as the only option. Jora chose to adopt CRM practices across his entire 20-acre holding from the outset, it said.

The residue management cost, which was around ₹1,800-2,300 per acre before he implemented the CRM practices, declined to ₹900-1,400 per acre per season.

Fertiliser and fuel requirements fell as decomposing straw returned organic matter to soil that burning had steadily stripped. Jora noticed improvements in soil health and crop yield across his fields.

Farming since 2018, Manjinder Singh of Majhi village grows wheat during the rabi season and paddy alongside maize in kharif on 35 acres of land.

Before CRM practices reached his village, limited familiarity with modern machinery and high private rental costs made effective residue management difficult. Each season, nearly 87,500 kg of crop residue across his farmland was burned to prepare fields in time for the next sowing cycle.

Manjinder became aware of CRM practices through awareness campaigns and cooperative-level meetings. In April 2024, he began CRM practices on 10 acres. After seeing better soil structure, reduced fertiliser requirements and healthier crop performance, he expanded CRM practices across his entire 35-acre farm in the following season.

The CRM practices helped him bring down the residue management cost from ₹2,400-3,000 per acre to ₹1,200 per acre.

According to the statement, the adoption of CRM practices in Majhi village has helped reduce stubble burning, indicating a gradual shift towards sustainable farming methods across the Punjab and Haryana villages.