We Have No Choice, But To Burn The Stubble Say Punjab Farmers As Farm Fires Continue

It is that time of the year again when the air quality in Delhi and adjoining areas starts to deteriorate.

A combination of factors has been blamed for the dip in air quality in and around the national capital during the winter.

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Stubble burning and pollution in Delhi

Paddy straw burning in Punjab and Haryana has often been cited as one of the reasons behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.

Over the years, the central and state governments have tried to end this practice by making stubble burning punishable and providing alternatives.

Despite this, stubble burning continues to happen on farms across Punjab and Haryana.

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Why does Punjab struggle to process the stubble?

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai recently said that the AAP government in Punjab is working to control incidents of stubble burning and that they have made a plan to tackle the pollution that emanates from such incidents.

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann on Thursday said his government was making all-out efforts for the management of paddy stubble and has sought the farmers' support.

But this year too, things are not looking different and a large number of farm fires have been reported from across the state.

Farmers set fire to their fields to clear crop residue because the window for Rabi crop wheat is very short after paddy harvest. Punjab generates around 180 lakh tonnes of paddy straw annually.

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Government offers machines to process stubble

One of the ways the Punjab government tried to bring down the farm fires was by providing machines that would process the stubble faster.

Last month, Punjab Agriculture Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said 56,000 machines will be distributed to farmers for managing paddy stubble.

According to the minister, this will take the number of machines available to farmers this season to 1,46,422.

He said 90,422 machines were given to farmers from 2018 to 2022.

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A mobile app has also been developed whereby farmers can come to know about the availability of machines for the management of paddy straw within a radius of two-three kilometres.

Machines are out of reach for farmers

However, according to farmers, especially those who grow crops on small farms, these machines are beyond their reach, and they have no other option than to burn the stubble.

"The government claims that there is machinery to remove this, but we do not have it. We have little land and do not have the resources to cut it out by ourselves. Burning it is the only measure that is possible," a farmer from Amritsar told ANI.

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Bio-decomposers fail to make an impact

Another method the Punjab government tried to reduce stubble burning was to use bio-decomposers, which are microbial solutions that can turn the farm residual into manure in as little as 15¨C20 days .

But according to the Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), the results of the trials of bio-decomposers conducted in the state last year are not "very encouraging".

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Bio-decomposers were used on 7,000 acres of land during the 2021 Kharif season. The results of the trials "are not very encouraging", according to a presentation made by PPCB Member-Secretary Krunesh Garg at a workshop in Chandigarh on Monday.

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