Stubble Burning

Stubble Burning

Context: The article is based on “Stubble burning witness spike in Punjab; 63% rise since 2022” covered recentlyin The Hindu.

What is Stubble Burning?
• Stubble burning is the intentional setting on fire of crop residue to remove them from the field in order to sow the next crop. This practice is often used by farmers to quickly clear their fields and prepare them for the next planting season.

What are the reasons for stubble burning?
• Quick and Efficient Field Clearance: Stubble burning is a quick, cheap, and efficient way to prepare the soil bed for the next crop.
• Poor coverage of subsidized machinery.
• Farmers demand very high per acre relief.
• Unsuitable for Animal Fodder: Unlike other crop residues, paddy residue (except for basmati variety) is harder to chew, has low calorific value, and high silica content, all of which makes it unsuitable for use as animal fodder

Impact of Stubble burning:
• Air Pollution: Stubble burning releases a large number of toxic pollutants into the atmosphere, including carbon monoxide (CO), methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), aromatic hydrocarbons, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
• Soil Quality: Stubble burning adversely affects soil fertility. It leads to a loss of 5.5 kg nitrogen, 2.3 kg phosphorus, 25 kg potassium, and more than 1 kg of sulfur per tonne of stubble burned. These are all essential nutrients for soil health.
• Climate Change: The release of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane contributes to global warming. The formation of brown clouds due to stubble burning can also impact local air quality and atmospheric visibility, further contributing to climate change.
• Health Hazards: The pollutants released by stubble burning can cause numerous health issues, including respiratory problems and other diseases.

What are the government initiatives to tackle Stubble burning?
• Financial Incentives: The Supreme Court directed the governments of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh to pay farmers a financial incentive to curb the practice.
• Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) Machines: To achieve the goal of reducing stubble burning cases by more than 50 per cent compared to the previous year, a staggering 1,17,672 Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) machines will replace the age-old practice of stubble burning in Punjab’s fields.
• Subsidy for Equipment: Between 2018 and 2022, the Centre provided Rs 1,370 crore to Punjab as subsidy for buying equipment to check the menace.
• Nodal Officers: In 2020, the Government of Punjab appointed 8000 nodal officers in villages that grow paddy in order to put a check on stubble burning. In 2023, the Government deployed a team of 776 dedicated nodal officers across the State.

What are the alternatives to stubble burning?
• In-Situ Treatment of Stubble: This involves managing the crop residue in the field itself. For example, using a zero-tiller machine or bio-decomposers.
• Ex-Situ (Off-Site) Treatment: This involves using the crop residue outside the field. For instance, rice straw can be used as cattle fodder.
• Changing Cropping Pattern: Altering the cropping pattern can reduce the need for stubble burning.
• Use of Stubble in Various Ways: Instead of burning, stubble can be used in different ways like cattle feed, compost manure, roofing in rural areas, biomass energy, mushroom cultivation, packing materials, fuel, paper, bio-ethanol and industrial production

Way Forward
• Recent innovations like happy seeder, rotavator, baler, paddy straw chopper, etc. are costly but they could help farmers to manage crop residues effectively.
• New and Improved seed varieties: Using improved varieties of rice and wheat crops, particularly shortduration crop varieties. For example, Pusa Basmati-1509 and PR-126 mature quickly and also improve the quality of the soil.
• Sustainable farm management practices: Such measures include the production of biochar in-situ management with mechanical intensification. These measures could not only manage the crop residues but also help control GHG emissions.