Strike at the root

Stubble burning requires an economically feasible solution

With paddy harvesting beginning to gather pace, the north-western rice-growing region seems set to witness a sharp increase in air pollution due to the burning of crop remnants. Though the pollution levels may not turn as grave this year as in previous years, thanks to several measures to check crop burning, it would be naive to expect spectacular results immediately. The Centre has approved funds to provide 50 to 80 per cent subsidy on crop residue management machines in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and the National Capital Region (NCR). Farmers’ groups and cooperatives are being given financial assistance worth 80 per cent of the project cost for setting up farm machinery banks to make stubble removal equipment available to farmers. Besides, agricultural research and educational institutions, whose counsel is valued by the farmers, are raising awareness about the issue. The entire campaign is being closely monitored by the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA). As a result, the satellite images captured by NASA, the US space agency, show fewer field fires so far this year than in the same period last year.

The truth is that the pernicious practice of straw blazing can be expected to start waning this year but it will not halt immediately. The reason, obviously, is that most of the mechanical alternatives to stubble blazing involve costs the farmers find hard to bear. Many farmers openly say that it is cheaper to pay the fine for burning the fields than to use machinery to remove the stubbles. Therefore, even the governments of Punjab and Haryana anticipate no more than 40 per cent of the stubble to be managed mechanically in this season. However, even that level of compliance can result in a tangible dip in the NCR’s pollution. This is because of prevention of burning each tonne of paddy straw staves off the generation of 1,460 kg of carbon dioxide, apart from ash, smoke and other pollutants, notably the health-injurious particulate matter (PM). Studies reveal that around 64 per cent of Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution (which can get into the bloodstream and lungs to cause various respiratory and other ailments) in winter comes from outside the city.

The reality is that crop residue burning is an economic compulsion for the farmers as this is the quickest and virtually a cost-free way to vacate the fields for the next season. Its solution, too, has to be economically feasible. The sops being doled out by the Centre and state governments, even if generous, are aimed largely at lowering the cost of equipment and not the expenses on their use, which are also quite burdensome for the cash-starved farmers. Even direct sowing with equipment such as Happy Seeder and Zero-tillage Seeder turns out to be costlier than planting in residue-free fields. The Punjab government last year suggested to the Centre to pay an additional Rs 100 a quintal for procuring paddy from farmers who do not burn the stubble. This proposition has remained unheeded till now. It is time to appreciate that no cost is too heavy to protect human health and the environment from pollution by curbing crop residue burning.