All stakeholders need to give up the blame game to get viable solutions to stubble burning, which is causing havoc not only to the environment and human health by polluting air but is causing immense damage to soil nutrients as well. It is a national problem but the hype over stubble burning gets louder in the context of Punjab and Haryana as powers-that-be blame farmers of two principal agrarian states for burning stubble, deteriorating the purity of air in the national capital. The Supreme court also observes that, “now it has become a fashion to bash the farmers”. This theory has been in existence for a long now but to no avail. It is a serious lapse on the part of policymakers in addressing a life-threatening problem that has become so critical because of the ever-looming sword of Covid-19.
There are divergent views concerning the contributory role of stubble burning in choking the arteries of the national capital but one cannot deny the fact that burning of farm residues at a mass scale poses a serious threat to the quality of air. Even the burning of stubble in Pakistan’s Punjab causes implications in upper north India but we hardly talk about ‘stubble burning’ terrorism of our more irresponsible neighbouring country. Lahore is just 28 km away from Attari (Amritsar) border having an average 354 Air Quality Index (AQI). Winds from Pakistan play a crucial role in driving polluted air towards Punjab having an average of 270 AQI, in the process leaving the Delhi-NCR choked. However, there is not even a murmur over the nefarious designs of hostile more Pakistan, where farmers have been given free hand to burn the farm stubble.
As crackers, farm fires and Pakistan’s winds from the northwest combined to worsen Delhi’s air quality from bad to ‘severe’ category having AQI 500, the days after Diwali. Stubble burning has contributing part of it, rest is pollution in Delhi, particularly diesel driven SUVs and commercial vehicles, industries and dust. Punjab woke up to poor air quality too, a tad better than the very poor category last year, but the spectre of farm fires continues to loom large amid an all-pervasive sense of helplessness among farmers and law enforcement authorities as well. There is a ban on burning stubble after paddy harvesting but the violation is widespread. It is the same story in Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh.
The solutions mooted so far do not seem to be working at all. The subsidy scheme for employing a stubble residual machine has had limited success. The cost doesn’t add up for a vast majority of small, marginal and medium farmers. In 2015, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), an environmental court, banned stubble burning. Punjab authorities fine farmers if they defy the ban but such coercive methods have proved to be of little help. Monetary penalties have also failed to act as a deterrent. Action in terms of FIRs against erring farmers in today’s time is not a wise solution.
Why Farmers Burn Stubble Now
Farmers want to fulfil the gap for timely sowing wheat after the paddy harvest which is too narrow. In Punjab and Haryana, the paddy crop is usually harvested between the first and last weeks of October. Farmers then sow the wheat crop from the first week of November. The menace of rice straw was exacerbated by the shortage of labour and lack of time. When paddy is harvested by a combined harvester and thresher, the machine leaves behind a significant length of stubble on the field. This prevents other machines from sowing wheat seeds. With only 10-15 days between the paddy-harvesting season and the wheat-sowing time, forced farmers burn the stubble to quickly eliminate the paddy stubble.
In 2019, the Supreme Court asked the Punjab and Haryana government to provide Rs 100 per quintal to small farmers to manage the stubble, which was not found feasible as well because the average productivity of paddy is 25 quintals per acre in Punjab, they may receive about Rs 2,500 per acre. Given the frustratingly tardy progress in the mission to curb stubble burning, a viable commercial model is being seen as a solution that could eventually bring a perceptible change in atmosphere and people’s attitude as well. Some private firms have taken the lead in Punjab in buying stubble from farmers to produce gas and other by-products in biogas plants. The ventures need encouragement from the government.
The Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) has claimed success with the use of bio-decomposer spray named ‘PUSA’ decomposes most of the stubble into manure in a month. But in Punjab, where the gap for sowing wheat after the paddy harvest is too narrow, that is 10 to 15 days. The trial use of bio-decomposers, at least, has not seen favourable results. As a result, in the political slugfest over the issue of stubble burning, farmers are the culprit in the eyes of urban dwellers and policymakers as well. The perception is that they simply do not care, even though farmers and their families are the first victims of air pollution. Obduracy and a mental block are seen as the key roadblocks. There is a need for better, intelligent solutions, not a blame game that is of no help in confronting an existential issue.
The Way Forward
Farmers have a tough time unlearning the age-old practice of stubble-burning. Alternatives to stubble burning are not popular because they impose additional operational expenses, often from the farmer’s pocket. The rising fuel prices have increased the operational cost of the happy and super seeders by 10-15%, dampening the popularity of these machines. The cost of stubble management is Rs 6,000 to 7,000 per acre but the state and the Centre incentives are less than Rs 2,500 per acre. However, being a passive onlooker is not going to be a solution as well. Hence, there is a pressing need to facilitate farmers with free reaper binder and paddy straw chopper on their farm gate.
The state governments may arrange to procure the stubble, along with paddy grain, by hiring balers to work for free for the farmers to facilitate them with ready to plough farm for wheat sowing after paddy harvesting. The stubbles can then be sold to biomass-based power plants, paper mills and cardboard factories.
In the longer term, another way to reduce stubble burning is to replace long-duration paddy varieties with shorter duration varieties like PUSA Basmati-1509 and PR-126, which can be harvested in the third week of September itself. This will widen the window between the end of the paddy harvesting and the wheat sowing, allowing enough time for the paddy stubble to decompose, and eliminate the need for stubble-burning.
If farmers are provided with requisite assistance and paraphernalia, they will refrain from burning stubble. We all know that stubble retention has many benefits, but requires a systems approach to manage disease, pest and weed pressure. A slew of techniques and technologies can be used, which should be cheap and easy to use. Farmers need to be told how they are ruining their farms by damaging nutrients of the soil, which are so vital for a healthy and nutritious crop.
The author is Vice-Chairman, Punjab State Planning Board and Chairman, ASSOCHAM (Northern Council). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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