Despite providing `100 per quintal per farmers to manage paddy crop residue in situ without burning and spending over `500 crore from Central Government’s grant in the last two years, out of the 83,466 incidents of stubble burning in three States, Punjab has recorded 75,781 incidents this season, highest since 2017. Farmers’ organisations who were protesting in the State claimed that farmers resorted to stubble burning to protest their anger over the central Government’s farm legislations.
According to the ministry of agriculture’s data, Punjab had reported 46211 cases of stubble burning in the corresponding period last year and 49387 such incidents in 2018. The number of farm fires was 53518 in the state during the same period in 2017. An official from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) said the incidents of stubble burning hit the peak between November 1 and November 14. With 9695 incidents, Sangrur is top in the state in stubble burning, followed by Bathinda 7133, Ferozepur 6,968, Patiala 5364, Muktsar 4795 and Mansa 4780 this year as compared to since 2017.
Records show nearly 28,000 crop residue management machines like Happy Seeder, Super-Straw Management System (S-SMS), chopper, mulcher, cutter-cum-slasher and hydraulically reversible mould board plough were delivered last year, and another 18,000 were delivered this year. The subsidy is 50 per cent on machines purchased by farmers individually, and 80 per cent if purchased by societies.
The numbers of stubble burning incidents in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh tell a different story altogether. The figures have come down significantly. According to the data, Haryana recorded 4,909 farm fires between October 1 and November 14 while Uttar Pradesh reported 2,676 such incidents during the period, which is the lowest in both the states in the last five years. Haryana recorded 5,807 incidents of stubble burning and Uttar Pradesh 2,653 cases (till Nov 12) during the corresponding period last year.
Despite a ban on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, farmers continue to defy it as there is a short window between the harvesting of paddy and the sowing of wheat. The high cost of manual or mechanical management of straw is a major reason why farmers choose to burn it. The period from 15 October to 15 November is when stubble burning instances spike because paddy crops are harvested during this time and the residue left behind needs to be cleared to sow wheat. While burning is the easiest and cheapest method, there are other, less harmful ways of clearing agricultural fields.
Last year, Punjab produced around two crore tonnes of paddy residue, of which 98 lakh tonnes were burnt by farmers. Farmers in Haryana burnt 12.3 lakh tonnes of the 70 lakh tonnes of paddy residue produced.