Why do farmers burn stubble?

• Stubble burning has been practiced by farmers from all over the world although many governments have prohibited the practice in various degrees.
• In the 1960s, as part of the Green Revolution, farmers in Punjab and Haryana were encouraged to do wheat-paddy crop rotation to make India self-reliant in grains production.
• As a result and because of assured procurement of rice and subsidies, rice acreage increased.
• The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act (2009) made it mandatory for farmers to transplant paddy late during the Kharif season to prevent loss of water.
• This gives the farmers very little time between harvesting the rice crop and preparing the field for the next winter crop.
• Hence, stubble burning is a quick, cheap and easy way to clear the field of any rice chaff residue.
• One reason for the large quantity of rice stubble left behind after harvesting is the increased modernisation and mechanisation of agriculture.
• Mechanised harvesting extracts the rice grains only leaving behind huge residue. Manual harvesting is not an option for farmers because of the huge labour charges and the increased time taken.
• Earlier, the stubble used to be used by farmers as hay to keep animals or homes warm, and even for cooking. However, these uses of stubble have now become outdated.
• Also, rice straw is not considered suitable as fodder for animals because of its high silica content (this is true for the non-basmati variety of rice).
• Despite the Punjab government making available tractor-mounted ‘happy seeders’ to cut down the rice stubble and sow wheat seeds simultaneously, many farmers find the prices of these machines or their rents prohibitive. So, they continue to burn stubble.
• To use a ‘happy seeder’ machine, farmers have to shell out Rs.1000 per acre of land as machine rent and a further Rs.2000 for diesel.
• A few other machines/devices have been introduced by the government. However, many farmers cite suitability as an issue.
• Also, stubble burning requires only a matchbox whereas the adoption of these machines incurs additional costs for the farmers.

• It is the cheapest and quickest way to deal with crop waste.
• It destroys weeds including those that are resistant to herbicides.
• It kills other pests also, such as slugs.
• It can decrease nitrogen tie-up.

When Punjab and Haryana famers are encouraged to do paddy cultivation?

• In the 1960s, wheat-paddy crop rotation was encouraged in Punjab and Haryana to make India self-sufficient in food grain production.
• Large public investments in irrigation and adoption of high yielding varieties under the Green Revolution helped achieve the goal and make the nation food secure.
• The share of paddy (rice) in the gross cropped area in Punjab has increased from 6.8% in 1966-67 to almost 36.4 % in recent years, while it has increased from 4.97% to 20% in Haryana.
• Besides, Punjab enacted a water conservation law in 2009 which mandates paddy sowing within a notified period (sometime in June instead of the earlier practice in May).
• A shorter period of sowing days prohibits transplantation before a notified date, which in turn limits the window available for harvesting paddy to between 15 and 20 days.
• As a result, farmers who are pressed for time to sow wheat and maintain crop yield find stubble burning to be an easy and low-cost solution.

Effects of Green Revolution

• Green revolution had negative externalities in terms of land degradation, adverse soil health due to overuse of fertilizers and pesticides, and plummeting water tables have surfaced.
• The increase in the rise of paddy crops has undisputedly been at the cost of the area under maize, cotton, oilseeds and sugarcane.
• The policy of minimum support price for crops, in tandem with the assured procurement and input subsidy, have left farmers with no option but to follow this rotation.
• Air pollution is a worry especially in north India, Stubble burning is said to be a key factor behind the formation of a dense cover of smog in this part of India though its contribution is less than 20%.
• Farmers are held responsible for the crisis but what is at fault are the flawed and short-sighted policies of the Central and State governments.
• Punjab faces serious labor shortage problem, In the Agricultural Census 2011, average land-holding size has increased from 2.89 hectares in 1970-71 to 3.77 hectares in 2010-11 — higher than the national average of 1.5 hectares.
• Paucity of labour for various farm operations is substituted by machines for which the government extends financial support.

Where stubble burning impacts more?

• According to a central government air quality monitoring agency, the share of stubble burning in Delhi’s pollution rose to 42% last year.
• The Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, said the farm fire count in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and neighbouring areas increased significantly and stood at 4,135 till October 2020.
• SAFAR said the boundary layer wind direction is north-westerly — favourable for the transport of pollutants from farm fires.
• satellite imagery from NASA recently showed that a large, dense cluster of fire dots is covering Punjab and parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
• The Air quality index for Delhi has risen to a severe category already.
• An AQI reading between zero and 50 is termed “good”, between 51 and 100 is termed “satisfactory”, between 101 and 200 is “moderate”, between 201 and 300 is “poor”, between 301 and 400 is “very poor”, and 401 and 500 is considered “severe”.

The stubble burning process which is seen as an easy way out causes many problems. Important of them are the following:

• It releases harmful gases including nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, methane, Volatile organic compounds, carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and particulate matter (PM2.5 and 10) into the atmosphere.
• In recent years, this practice has created vast smoke blankets across the Indo­-Gangetic Plain and numerous neighbouring States, including Delhi.
• This directly exposes millions of people to air pollution. As per TERI (The Energy and Resources Institute), in 2019 the air pollution in New Delhi and other parts of north India was 20 times higher than the safe threshold level as prescribed by the World Health Organization.
• Crop burning contributed to nearly 40% of the near-surface PM2.5 in the capital region in 2016 which saw one of New Delhi’s worst pollution episodes.
• Stubble burning also has a deleterious impact on soil fertility by destroying organic material and nutrients from the soil. The heat penetrates into soil killing useful microbes.
• Stubble burning also causes an increase in enemy pests due to the killing of useful microorganisms.
• Stubble burning causes a reduction of soil moisture and also reduces groundwater levels in the region.
• Apart from these direct impacts it also leads to loss of useful ‘wealth’ that is stubble. Stubble may be useful in creating high-grade organic fertilizer by mixing it with cow dung and some enzymes.

Who is credited for developing a cost effective machine for stubble burning?

• The IIT Ropar has manufactured a cost-effective stubble-removing machine to solve the problem of stubble burning.
• The machine costs around ₹3 lakh and IIT-Ropar is ready to share the technology with private industries for large-scale manufacturing, provided the government asks it to do so.The machine removes stubble instantly and can be used immediately after harvesting with a combine.
• “To be mounted on a tractor trolley, the machine can chop off stubble up to a few centimeters from the ground and automatically load it into the trolley without any manpower.
• This saves labour cost and cuts down diesel expenses, which are the two main concerns of state farmers.
• IIT-Ropar has also developed an active self-sustaining stubble management system where each district can have a few of these machines in co-operative societies.
• The machine is integrated with an android app and interactive voice response system (IVR).
• The app will automatically route and schedule the machine; it can be ordered to perform simply by a phone call or through the app. To do so, farmers must give details of their field size and location, and the app will give them a day and time they can avail it on.
• The machine can be sent to several places to remove stubble as per the request of farmers. Thereafter, the stubble collected can be used to make fertiliser, or burned in a boiler to generate electricity or even to create acoustic/ply boards.
• The stubble-removing machine developed by IIT-Ropar is far better and more cost-effective than the machines currently available in the market.

• Stubble can be used as an alternative fuel such as briquettes, which can also increase a farmer’s income.
• Stubble can be converted into biochar, which can be used as a fertilizer, by burning it in a kiln.
• Co-operative societies of farmers, self-help groups, registered farmers societies or farmers groups, private entrepreneurs for establishment of farm machinery banks or custom hiring centers need to be developed.
• The state and central government could draw policies and allocate funds to local bodies to help the farmers build compost plants for stubble on application.
• In the longer term, long-duration paddy varieties can be replaced with shorter duration varieties, allowing enough time for the paddy stubble to decompose.
• The government must invest in agricultural research and development come up with alternative methods of curbing stubble burning.

• Incentivise farmers for not burning the stubble and provide economic value for the crop residue. The stubble can be converted into fodder or organic fertilizer or fuel. The government should also subsidise or incentivise the industries that are engaged in converting stubble into economically viable products.
• Efforts should be made to improve the combine harvester that farmers use to harvest the crop. The current machine used leaves behind a huge residue.
• Improvement should be made in the technology used in such machines so that minimal residue is left behind.
• Encourage and incentivise the farmers to go for early paddy, so as to give them enough time to harvest and thereafter prepare their fields for the next Rabi crop.
• Encourage farmers to sow alternate crops and shift them away in the long run from paddy to maize, fruits, vegetables and cotton.
• Use machinery like the Happy Seeder to remove the stubble. The government should make these machines available and economically viable for farmers.
• Penalise farmers that indulge in stubble burning. Despite penalties, many farmers engage in this practice because they find it cheaper to pay the fines rather than incurring the expenses for the alternatives for stubble burning.
• The government can also consider reinterpreting the MSP scheme to disallow the benefits of the scheme to farmers who practice crop residue burning.
• The government has to increase monetary incentives for avoiding stubble burning and also make machines that counter stubble burning an affordable, viable and accessible option for farmers.
• Farmers have a difficult time unlearning the practice of stubble burning and they should be educated about its ill-effects and also offered attractive alternatives.
• Eminent agricultural scientist M.S. Swaminathan has suggested that the Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments could set up ‘Rice Bio Parks’, where farmers could convert stubble into products including paper, cardboard and animal feed.

Government initiatives to curb Stubble Burning

•  In 2019, the Supreme Court directed the governments of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to pay farmers a financial incentive to curb the practice.
• In 2020, the Government of Punjab appointed 8000 nodal officers in villages that grow paddy in order to put a check on stubble burning.
• Already, penalties for stubble burning are imposed on farmers who break the law and resort to burning crop residue.
• More than 23,000 crop residue management machines are being given to farmers for on-site management of straw.
• The state had been demanding the Centre to give ₹100 per quintal to farmers for managing the paddy straw without burning. However, the Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority or EPCA had said that this was not viable.
• Under a 100% centrally-funded scheme, in-situ residue management machines are given to individual farmers at 50% subsidy and to CHCs (custom hiring centres) at 80% subsidy.
• The states of Punjab and Haryana are also providing such machines and setting up more CHCs.
• In October 2020, the Centre informed the Supreme Court that it would bring in a law to curb stubble burning.
• The SC had also decided to form a one-man committee chaired by Justice Madan Lokur to monitor/prevent stubble burning in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab. This order has been kept in abeyance as of 28 October 2020.