Under the directives of Punjab Chief Minister a "Crop Biomass" cell has been established in Punjab Agriculture department for assessing the production of crops and estimating biomass for generating electricity from alternative resources in the Punjab. Sources in Agriculture department told Business Recorder on Thursday that the basic concept of setting up this centre was to evaluate biomass from crops waste and to gather information of waste of important and small crops across the Punjab.
The centre will also coordinate with firms interested in generating electricity from biomass besides centre will also focus attention on research for developing close coordination with national and international institutions having the skill of generating electricity from biomass.
The cell will also find out the ways and means for minimizing the wastage of crops as well as it will made viable recommendations for the protection and transportation of crops waste. Punjab was producing over 50 million tones of agriculture waste every year out of which 6.44 million tones is sugarcane sediment which was being used by Sugar industry for power generation sources added. Special attention will be accorded on formulating biomass management system and setting up crop waste processing plants in the Punjab sources disclosed.