Brothers’ mantra for stubble trouble: Why burn when you can earn

While the Punjab government is arranging visits of state industrialist to Shree Ganesh Edibles Pvt Limited, Amloh in Fatehgarh Sahib district, to see and adopt the technology, businessmen from Maharashtra, Gujarat and neighbouring Haryana are keen to replicate the model

Patiala Two brothers Hans Raj Garg, an MBA, and Puneet Garg, an engineer, have not only monetised the paddy straw but have come up with Asia’s first industrial unit with an investment of ₹150 crore which will run fully on crop residue.

Hans Raj Garg with a Dutch expert at his Amloh unit. Around 500 farmers are associated with us, says Hans Raj who runs the unit along with his brother Puneet.

While the Punjab government is arranging visits of state industrialist to Shree Ganesh Edibles Pvt Limited, Amloh in Fatehgarh Sahib district, to see and adopt the technology, businessmen from Maharashtra, Gujarat and neighbouring Haryana are keen to replicate the model.

A technology developed by Denmark and localised by Garg brothers has turned the industrial unit, spread over 50 acres and having power intensive steel unit, edible oil, cattle feed, chemicals and other allied industry, running on paddy straw.

Their experiment with straw to build biomass-based boiler and replace coal with paddy straw has not only increased their earnings and contribution towards reducing carbon footprints, but has transformed the lives of many farmers, who are selling straw to them for the past nine years. This year, the Garg brothers have set a target to purchase paddy straw over 1 lakh acres for ₹50 crore. Paddy grown over an acre leaves behind 2.5 tonnes of straw.

Garg brothers said they will purchase paddy straw at ₹1,500 per tonne in shape of bales at eight collection centres spread across three districts of Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Ludhiana. “We provide direct employment to 500 workers and around 5,000 farmers are associated with us,” they said, adding that payment is made to farmers within 48 hours of purchase of paddy straw. “We are successfully running a first-of-its-kind plant in India for 2.5MW Co Gen Plant at our industrial complex, which uses 90,000 MT of paddy straw every year. Now, we have imported technology from Denmark and setting first-of-its-kind unit in India, which will produce steel, edible oil, chemicals, and other items, using power and steam produced by paddy straw,” said Hans Raj Garg.

“Our family earned ₹80 lakh last year by selling bales of paddy straw. We worked hard to collect straw from fields using bailers. This year, we are aiming to collect more straw,” said Charanjit Singh, a farmer, who has a tie-up with the Garg brothers to supply 8,000 tonnes of paddy straw this year.