Instead of cribbing about stubble-burning polluting the air in Delhi-NCR, we need to work together to develop out-of-the-box solutions for a better tomorrow
The Supreme Court (SC)-mandated Environment Pollution Prevention and Control Authority (EPCA) had recently declared a public health emergency in Delhi-NCR in light of the air pollution reaching extremely hazardous levels. All construction activities in the region were put on hold, schools were closed and many offices even asked their employees to work from home. In addition, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi Government also started its vehicle rationing odd-even scheme for private automobiles to reduce pollution from vehicular emissions.
The hazardous spike in air pollution has health effects such as burning in the eyes, breathlessness, headache and reduced resistance to cold and lung infections, apart from long-term problems such as asthma, cancer, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and other respiratory problems.
Can we blame all of this on the burning of rice straw in the neighbouring States of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone? While all the attention is on the air quality and its monitoring in Delhi-NCR, we should not ignore what is happening on ground zero, where the actual activity of crop residue burning is taking place. What about the health of the farmers and their families who are burning the biomass on their land?
On a cumulative basis, perhaps pollution due to agriculture residue burning is just four per cent but burning of rice straw in the two to three weeks before winters and the flow of wind in a particular direction plays havoc with the air year after year.
The annual ritual of burning the post-harvest ‘stubble’ of the paddy crop to clear the fields for harvesting wheat in early November must be treated with urgency. According to the Union Ministry of Earth Science’s air quality monitor, the smoke from the farms can be responsible for as much as 44 per cent of Delhi’s air pollution. The main reason for burning of paddy straw is its high silicon content that makes it unfit to be used as animal fodder. Further, its density is very low, thus making storage difficult.
Many potential solutions have been discussed, including restricting paddy cultivation in the northern States. In fact, a part of the problem has been the policy change which postponed rice cultivation till June.
In an attempt to control depleting groundwater, a notification was issued by the Punjab Government in 2008 that pushed back rice planting in fields to June to coincide with the monsoons reaching North India. As a result, paddy is harvested right before sowing of wheat. Farmers have a very small window of less than two weeks to harvest their rice crop and prepare the land for sowing of wheat. Due to the restricted availability of farm machinery, it is very difficult for them to uproot paddy straw from their fields post-harvest. The result is unabated burning of the biomass that could have been left to turn to mulch in the fields itself if the farmers had more time between harvests.
The ill-effects of crop residue burning go beyond air pollution. Crop burning also results in loss of fertility and micro flora of the soil. Not only that, the deposition of particles on leaves lowers the rate of photosynthesis, further affecting carbon dioxide fixation and oxygen release. It also inhibits crop growth and productivity, thereby encouraging use of fertilisers in future crop cycles, hence leaving behind an ever-larger ecological footprint. Farmers are aware of these ill-effects, but the restricted availability and the high cost of alternatives force them to go down the stubble burning route.
The need of the hour is to provide farmers with financially viable alternatives. Farm machinery that can quickly uproot rice straw must be provided. This can be done either through Government subsidy or investment in agricultural infrastructure and developing entrepreneurial models for employment generation through renting of machines to farmers. The capacities of custom hiring centres also need to be aligned to the local needs. Both State and Central Governments should provide funding for such initiatives.
The agronomic practices followed in rice cultivation must change. The debate over rice cultivation in north India, while several years old, is now of paramount importance given the water scarcity and depleting water tables. It is now time to realise the gravity of the situation and adopt quick but well thought out measures. Area selection based on principles of sustainability should be undertaken. Furthermore, a careful selection of varieties and technologies needs to be undertaken scientifically considering the regional variances. Technologies such as direct seeded rice (DSR) should be popularised. Further, investment in technologies such as sub-soil irrigation must be promoted as it helps reduce the use of water, fertilisers, weedicides and so on.
Another aspect which does not get enough attention is natural resource accounting. Distorted water pricing for agriculture and the amount of fertiliser subsidies should be evaluated carefully while deciding on subsidies for popularising new technologies that could lead to sustainable agriculture. This also needs to be looked at while planning crops to ensure their suitability to a particular area.
Furthermore, multi-disciplinary research must be initiated for use of the crop residue as raw material for energy generation by industries that are dependent on coal as a source of fuel right now and composting. While availability of time-efficient alternatives to uproot straw from fields solve a part of the problem, technologies for the disposal of the residue need to be developed and commercialised to provide a complete solution.
Selection of efficient microbes for fast degradation of the paddy crop residue can provide farmers compost that can reduce requirement of chemical fertilisers for the wheat crop that follows. It can also be used as organic fertiliser for production of organic crops, thus providing farmers an incentive to shift to such practices.
In terms of leveraging learnings from other rice-producing countries, one example at the forefront is from China, where the straw is used and reused to its maximum potential.
Once off the field, the rice straw is used for large scale (approximately three million kg) of mushroom production. Post the mushroom cultivation, it is put to use for cultivating insects to feed the fish. Thus, the waste becomes an important raw material for other remunerative activities. The use of paddy straw in making particle boards has also been successfully attempted by many countries. Coming back to India, efforts at research and development stages have been initiated with Dutch collaboration. As citizens of a responsible nation we too all need to work together to develop out- of-the-box, sustainable solutions for a better tomorrow for all stakeholders — within the fields and without.
(The writer is Distinguished Fellow and Senior Director, TERI)
