Date: 30/12/2022

Relevance: GS-3: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment.

Key Phrases: Rotational Cropping System, Combined Harvester And Thresher, Soil Degradation, Pusa-Bio-Decomposer, National Policy For Management Of Crop Residue, Bio-methanation

Context:

• Stubble burning across Delhi, NCR particularly by farmers in north India is seen as a major cause of air pollution in Delhi. Each year, air pollution levels rise and the air quality index reaches a ‘severe’ and ‘hazarduous’ level.

What is Stubble Burning?

• Stubble burning is a practice of removing agricultural waste from the field by setting on fire the straw stubble (parali) that is left on the land after harvesting grains like paddy, wheat etc. in order to prepare it for the next round of seeding.
• Every year, stubble burning peaks during the onset of winter around October - November as this is the harvesting period of paddy crops and the residue left behind needs to be cleared to sow wheat.
• Crops such as rice and wheat account for large volumes of crop residues in India. Apart from wheat and paddy, sugarcane leaves are mostly burnt on fields.

Reasons for Stubble Burning:

• The main problem behind crop burning is the rotational cropping system of rice and wheat where farmers burn stubble as they have to quickly clear the fields for the next crop.
• Due to a shortage of labour and time, when paddy is harvested by a combined harvester and thresher, particularly by large farmers in Punjab, the machine leaves behind a significant length of straw and stubble on the field.
• This prevents other machines from sowing wheat seeds and thus farmers often burn the stubble to quickly eliminate the paddy stubble.

Consequences Of Stubble Burning:

• The major problems of the burning of crop residues are pollution and greenhouse gas emissions that lead to global warming.
• These directly contribute to environmental pollution and are also responsible for the haze in Delhi and the melting of Himalayan glaciers.
• Soil degradation is another problem due to the burning of crop residues.
• Burning paddy straw radiates heat that kills fungus and bacteria which is essential for soil fertility.
• The pollutants dispersed due to stubble burning in the atmosphere eventually affect air quality and people’s health by forming a thick blanket of smog.
• The smoke apart from causing irritation to eyes, also leads to breathing difficulties and lung diseases.

Measures To Curb Stubble Burning:

• Innovative farm technologies: One of the recent innovations that could help farmers to manage crop residues effectively is by employing agricultural machines like Happy seeder, Rotavator, Baler, Paddy straw chopper, etc. but these machines are too costly. Therefore, the government should provide adequate subsidies to make this machinery affordable for farmers.
• New and Improved seed varieties: The use of new and improved varieties of rice and wheat crops particularly short duration crop varieties like Pusa Basmati-1509 and PR-126, could be seen as a measure to overcome the problem of stubble burning as they mature quickly and also improve the quality of the soil.
• Pusa-bio-decomposer: Developed by scientists at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, it turns crop residue into manure in 15–20 days by accelerating the decomposition process.
• Biogas plants: They can curb crop burning and prevent pollution. These plants are installed by the government under the ‘waste to energy mission’ and they generate bio-gas by utilising crop waste such as rice straw through bio-methanation technology.
• Sustainable farm management practices: Other measures suggested by agriculturists and scientists include composting, production of biochar, and in-situ management with mechanical intensification. These measures could not only manage crop residues but could also help in controlling GHG emissions.
• Educating and empowering the stakeholders: Educating and empowering the farming community could be an important step to making a significant impact. Farmers feel that they are responsible only for growing foodgrains and the crop residue is not their responsibility. This thinking should be changed and farmers should feel responsible for crop residues and this should be brought through awareness campaigns.

Way Forward:

• The solution to the problem of stubble burning lies in exploring sustainable farm practices with an active role of the government in regulating and framing policies.
• In recent years, the government has developed a framework and action plan for effective prevention and control of stubble burning but a major challenge that lies with these schemes is their successful implementation and enforcement.

Conclusion:

• The government should act as an enabler by spreading awareness about the pros and cons of each option, to eliminate confusion and ease the adoption of new technologies by removing socio-economic barriers so that these new and innovative technologies can be accessed by small and marginal farmers.
• All these efforts could help in providing support to the farmer and could be effective in controlling stubble burning along with environmental pollution in the country.

Source: Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. The solution to the problem of stubble burning lies in exploring sustainable farm practices with an active role of the government in regulating and framing policies. Elucidate (250 words).