PolicyAgriculture
Stubble fires down in Haryana and UP, rising in MP and Rajasthan, Centre warns states
Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bhupender Yadav told state agriculture ministers that machines must work in fields, not on paper, as most of the paddy harvest is still to come.
Key points
- Farm fires between 15 September and 12 October fell 53.3% in Haryana from a year earlier.
- Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan saw increases and were told to draw up special action plans.
- Of ₹592.57 crore set aside for 2026-27, ₹430.87 crore has been released to states.
Farm fires in Haryana have fallen by more than half this season, but the Centre warned on Tuesday that the fight against stubble burning is far from over, with most of the paddy harvest still in the fields and two states going the wrong way.
Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav held a joint review at Krishi Bhawan with agriculture ministers of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi-NCR, along with Minister of State Bhagirath Choudhary and the Union agriculture and environment secretaries, Atish Chandra and Narendra Bhushan.
Where the numbers stand
Between 15 September and 12 October, burning incidents dropped 53.3% in Haryana and about 32% in Uttar Pradesh compared with the same period last year. Punjab recorded a smaller fall. Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan reported increases, which the ministers flagged as a concern.
Chouhan told the two states to identify the affected districts and villages and start special action plans at once. States doing better were told not to relax, since a large part of the crop is yet to be cut.
Machines in the field
The Centre has supplied more than 3.54 lakh crop residue management machines to states, including 26,109 this year. Chouhan said telling farmers not to burn straw is not enough on its own, and that the machines have to run in the fields and not just exist on paper. He asked for idle machines to be repaired and custom hiring centres to offer them at affordable rates to small and marginal farmers.
He also pushed Punjab to send its utilisation certificate quickly so the next instalment can be released. Of ₹592.57 crore allocated for 2026-27, ₹430.87 crore has been released, and the meeting noted that states were slow to spend it.
Chouhan wants straw treated as a resource. He asked states to link farmers directly with thermal power plants that co-fire pellets, compressed biogas plants and second-generation ethanol units, to store straw as fodder in drought-hit areas, and to move farmers from the long-duration Pusa-44 variety to shorter ones such as Pusa 2090 and PR126 that clear fields sooner.
Eyes on the ground
Yadav asked for tighter enforcement in ten districts: Sangrur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Patiala and Gurdaspur in Punjab, and Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala and Fatehabad in Haryana.
He said monitoring cannot rest on satellite data alone, especially after 3 pm, when no satellite passes are available. Ground patrols and flying squads should fill that gap, and fire data should be shared with the Commission for Air Quality Management and the Central Pollution Control Board, along with forecasts of harvest timing and weather that affect air in the National Capital Region.
District collectors have been asked to hold quick meetings and get teams into villages.
The documents
- Union Ministers Shivraj Singh Chouhan and Bhupender Yadav jointly review stubble management (Hindi release)PIB, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, 13 October 2026