Balloh village in Bathinda district, Punjab, has become the first in the state to offer farmers a free baler service to collect paddy straw from their fields, according to The Tribune. The village panchayat and a local welfare organisation say the aim is to discourage stubble burning during the ongoing harvest.
How the scheme works
Three balers have been arranged by the Taranjot Welfare Society, and a fourth has been provided by village sarpanch Amarjit Kaur. The machines collect and bale paddy straw from the fields, and farmers are not charged.
The cost saving is the main attraction. “One baler will provide a benefit of Rs 400-500 per acre to a farmer,” the sarpanch said. The scale is considerable. The village has nearly 3,270 acres of cultivable land, of which 2,800 acres are under paddy, and a population of nearly 4,800.
The society is not new to this work. Villagers said it had campaigned against stubble burning for several years and had earlier paid Rs 500 per acre to farmers who did not burn residue. The society and the panchayat have also written to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann about the initiative, hoping similar efforts will spread across the state. The Punjabi edition of The Tribune also reported that Balloh has become the first village with a free baler service. We could not find an independent confirmation of the “first in the state” claim, so it rests on the village’s own account.
Why straw is such a big problem
Punjab produces a great deal of it. Pollution Control Board data put straw output at around 210 lakh tonnes this year, of which only about 120 lakh tonnes is worked back into the soil. The rest is available as fuel or is set on fire. Farmers have little time between paddy harvest and wheat sowing, which is why many burn the residue to clear fields quickly.
Bathinda sits in the Malwa belt, where burning has been most stubborn. A CEEW survey found that nearly 25 per cent of farmers in high-burn districts such as Sangrur, Bathinda, Firozpur and Fazilka burned their straw completely in Kharif 2022.
The statewide trend has been downward. Punjab recorded 5,114 cases in 2025, the lowest in over a decade, against 10,909 in 2024 and 36,663 in 2023. This season, the Commission for Air Quality Management reports 84 fire incidents so far, and field inspections have covered 78 of them, confirming residue burning at 30 locations. Harvesting in Malwa is only beginning, so the count is likely to change.
What this means for India
Crop-residue smoke from Punjab is a recurring public-health concern across north India each autumn. Balloh shows that a village-level effort can remove the cost barrier that keeps some farmers lighting fires, at least on paper. Its results are not yet measured, and the scheme depends on a society’s funds and machines. Other panchayats and farmer groups can note the model, but the season’s fire data will show whether it works.
What to watch
The Tribune report does not yet give figures on acres cleared or fires avoided in Balloh. Those numbers, along with whether the state takes up the idea after the letter to the Chief Minister, will show if the model can travel to other villages.
Sources
- Bathinda village battles farm fires with free straw baling, lifting – The Tribune
- Balloh Stubble Management: ਮੁਫ਼ਤ ਬੇਲਰ ਸੇਵਾ ਵਾਲਾ ਪਹਿਲਾ ਪਿੰਡ ਬਣਿਆ ਬੱਲ੍ਹੋ – Punjabi Tribune
- Ahead of paddy harvest, Punjab gears up to curb farm fires – The Tribune
- Punjab records 84 stubble-burning fires; Amritsar accounts for 49 incidents (IANS)
- How Can Punjab End Stubble Burning With Crop Residue Management? – CEEW
