Smoke signals

Farm fires are likely to exacerbate this year

Crop fires after rabi harvest in summers are normally not taken too seriously because their environmental impact is usually localised. But this year, these blazes have come into focus because of the abnormal spike in their frequency. Going by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite imagery data, the number of field fires between April 1 and May 16 spurted by around 50 per cent in Punjab and almost doubled in Haryana over last year’s corresponding period. Though these flames did not affect the quality of air in the National Capital Region (NCR) the way the winter fires typically do, the sudden upturn in their count seems worrisome. This is because the surge is believed to be largely the consequence of the government’s acceptance of the farmers’ demand to decriminalise crop burning.

The Centre is reported to have curtailed the powers of the newly constituted Air Quality Management Commission for the NCR and Adjoining Areas to penalise the farmers on this charge by amending the Ordinance under which this body has been set up. If that is so, the menace of agricultural fires seems set to exacerbate and hit a new peak in October-November this year. With business as usual — and without result-oriented pre-emptive action to mitigate these infernos — the air pollution in the NCR in the ensuing winter may tend to get out of control. If the Covid-19 virus also persists till then — which cannot be ruled out — the consequences might be catastrophic. A recent global study has reckoned that around 30 per cent of the Covid-19 deaths have air pollution as a related factor.

Actually, the root cause of the winter farm fires is the meagre time gap between kharif harvesting and rabi sowing. The farmers, in their anxiety to plant the next crop in time, tend to go in for quick and relatively cheap means to remove the remnants of the previous crop to vacate the land for sowing. The stubble torching, therefore, is basically an economic issue that requires an economically feasible solution. Fortunately, a number of such solutions have emerged in the past few years. These include hastening the in situ decomposition of crop leftovers to prepare manure by using bio-decomposers like the one developed by the New Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (Pusa institute); or managing them through mechanical devices like happy seeder, rotavator, straw cutters, and bailers.

Crop residues can also be made commercially remunerative by using them as fuel for power production and running boilers in other industries. NTPC is, in fact, using agricultural biomass as fuel at its power plant in Dadri and paying for this farm waste. This apart, agricultural biomass can even be converted into pulp to make fancy paper, cardboards, and material for handicraft and decorative items. Such options can transform crop leftovers into economic goods for generating income to deter farmers from burning them. But the implementation of these innovative ideas requires advance planning. Small- and medium-scale industries, farmers’ producer companies, and other start-ups can be involved in this task. Now that the government has been duly alerted by the summer fires about the needed advance planning to cope with farm fires in winter, there is little reason why this should not be forthcoming.