Stubble burning: An emergency to be addressed.Blaming the farmers is a foul play.

Shruthi Belliappa
Nov 7 · 2 min read
Stubble Burning: The self set field fire.

Every year, after a lavishing Chhath and Diwali celebrations, National capital, Delhi and its air pollution become the ‘News Bulletin’ overnight. Subsequent series of debates braced with NASA’s satellite images, concludes “Stubble Burning” as a key issue and farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Western UP the claimed culprits. Ruling government busy harmonizing the opposition with newer policies, bureaucrats and peer scientists incisive on curbing the issue, while the farmers cluelessly burn the stubble for upcoming wheat sowing. The hyped tension has always deviated from the simple yet a very important question “Why farmers burn the stubble?”

Why Farmers Burn the Stubble?

1. The predominant rice-wheat cropping system gives a narrow went of 2–3 weeks to clear the rice crop and proceed with the wheat sowing.

2. Compulsory combined harvester use leaves behind 8–12 inches of paddy stalk after grain harvest. Indulging labors in ground clearance are impractical and nonprofitable.

3. If harvested the straw, where and how to use the humongous straw bulks?

“So stubble burning is the only left cheap solution for farmers”

Why crop residue management strategies: A partial success?

1. The high-cost machinery without proper subsidy rates disinterested the farmers on the purchase of pro-crop residue management machinery.

2. The straw utilization rate, when compared to the production rate despite diversion towards manuring, paper production, power plants, packaging, and bio-gas production is very low.

3. High silica content in the straw making it unfit for fodder use anticipating the deteriorated milk quality.

4. Poor implications of straw procurement policies ( ‎₹100 /quintal of a straw).

Conclusion

Stubble burning is a serious issue craving for high policy intervention. Pro- crop residue management machinery, penalties, start-up’s and NGO initiatives in shredding and baling are the appreciable temporary curbing efforts for reckonable volume of straw. However, until and unless the government initiates a solid, sustainable bulk straw procurement and utilization strategies, stubble burning will be an unsolved enigma.And farmers can never be blamed until a long-term policy with cutting-edge solutions to end the stubble burning is embedded in the system.

Is stubble really a waste? Or am I the only one seeing it as a potential revenue-generating entity?

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