As Winter Approaches, So Does the Stubble Bubble

With news of fires beginning to burn in Punjab, Delhiites are preparing for another toxic winter. People are already beginning to play the blame game, and the Supreme Court has reportedly said to arrest farmers for stubble burning. Our government, in 2024, clearly stated that “vehicular pollution, industrial pollution, dust from construction and demolition activities, road and open areas dust, biomass burning, municipal solid waste burning, fires in landfills” are major sources of air pollution, yet in the public eye, the usual suspects are the flood-hit paddy farmers of Punjab and Haryana. 

Reports also suggest that 2024 saw 85% fewer fires than 2021, yet mainstream media left no stone unturned to blame farmers for Delhi’s noxious air quality. 

What makes the situation more interesting is that recently, the Supreme Court lifted the ban on 10-year-old diesel vehicles and 15-year-old petrol vehicles coming into Delhi, directly increasing vehicular emissions. It appears that the real polluters don’t pay after all.

It is not only the top court that seems to be letting farmers down, but it is also our policy makers.  Let us begin to examine step by step the causes of stubble burning and how after many years of toxic air, and thousands of crores wasted, we are still nowhere near a real solution. 

The problem of stubble burning began when Punjab was chosen to be the experimental ground of the Green Revolution. Farmers were goaded to move away from traditional farming and crops like millet, corn, legumes, etc, and supplant them with newer, hybrid varieties of rice and wheat. 

With the many guarantees that farmers got, they ultimately shifted to the hybrid crop, but there was a problem that persisted. The Green Revolution varieties of paddy/rice had shorter straws and their straws were inedible for cattle and goats due to a high percentage of silica content in them.

Given the short window between harvesting of paddy resowing of Rabi wheat, farmers had no option but to burn the residue. In earlier times, because most of the harvesting was manually done, this problem did not persist. Over time, with labour shortages and inflation, machines were needed and this is when the combined harvester came to the scene to replace manual harvesting. 

However, there was an issue again, the harvester didn’t cut the paddy straw deep enough nor could it uproot the plant fully. So, after harvesting, paddy stubble was still on the field and the farmers, strapped for cash and time, had no choice but to burn the residue stubble straw. 

The second policy decision that potentially exacerbated the problem was changing the crop seasons for paddy. Paddy used to be planted in Punjab in May-June but that guzzled up a lot more water. Hence, the government asked the farmers to begin sowing in June-July. The problem with this was that at the time of harvest, the retreating monsoon took the winds southward. So when the farmers burned the stubble, all the smoke got sucked up southward and into the Gangetic plains. Air pressure and wind direction were also critical in stagnating toxic flumes. 

Solutions?

The most recent solution to this problem has been to introduce cloud seeding and artificial rain. Many voices are already warning the government of the dangers of geo-engineering and how this is only a short term emergency measure and not a sustainable solution. Especially after the cloud seeding fiasco in Dubai which caused flash floods and cloud bursts, we must be very cautious with such a measure. 

Let’s look at some other solutions. 

The Union government introduced a policy for crop residue management (CRM) machinery such as Happy Seeder and Super Seeder, which would harvest the paddy and at the same time sow the wheat. 

However, both these machines were reportedly rejected by the farmers due to high operations costs including high price of fuels, lack of training and unavailability of machines. These CRM machines were incompatible with the lower horse-powered (hp) tractors in Punjab. 

The adoption of the CRM machines, however, would have required the complete overhaul of farm machinery set up. Many also believe that this step fed the pocket of tractor manufacturers more than it benefited farmers or ecology. Even today, there are no newer designs deployed for completely removing the paddy straw, stubble and harvesting the grain at the same time. Older machines were imposed on the farmers, not keeping the Indian conditions in mind. 

Meanwhile, cities like Delhi, where the pollution issue is most concentrated, spent about 1/3 of the funds it had under the National Clean Air Programme, NCAP. One wonders why the Delhi government did not use the funds for curbing pollution. Was it political infighting or bad administration?

It was also reported that Noida in Uttar Pradesh, utilised only Rs 3.44 crore of the Rs 30.89 crore allotted for air pollution control. Faridabad in Haryana spent only Rs 28.60 crore out of the Rs 107.14 crore allotted.

Moving to ex-situ management, the state of Punjab has not been able to attract enough industries or develop many clusters despite high subsidies and tax breaks to utilise the paddy straw for biomass based pellets or gasification. Various proposals to use paddy straw pellets in brick kilns or boilers and other industries are still limited. Hence, straw is still valueless and burnt. If a budding biomass industry created value for the paddy, straw farmers would think twice before burning it.

Finally, agriculturally speaking, both central and state governments have not been able to divert farmers from paddy crops. The current Kharif season saw the maximum area under paddy – even the Malwa region of Punjab chose to sow paddy. Instead of diversification, paddy is reaching its saturation point in Punjab. If not for the floods, the stubble burning incidents would have gone up, not down.

So, what can be a real solution to the pollution crisis?

Firstly, instead of giving money to tractor manufacturers and industry, nip the problem in the bud. Ask farmers to sow different crops and pay them the price gaps as direct bank transfers (DBTs) as income support. If farmers have a fixed mandi with MSP for other crops backed by income support for shifting to legumes or organic farming they would most likely make the shift. Some of the under utilised budgets can be diverted towards the farmers.

Secondly, agricultural scientists and seed companies should be tasked with fast breeding varieties taken from native seeds that have edible paddy straw like the Basmati. By changing the Green Revolution seeds, we can make the straw edible again for cattle and goats. We need to create value in the paddy straw whether as cattle fodder or industrial raw material.

Thirdly, overall organic farming needs to be promoted in Punjab for saving water, soil and health of farmers. 

Lastly, for the farmers that don’t shift to new methods, the IITs and other engineering institutes can be tasked to partner with industry and build a harvester that works for Indian conditions. With the right designs that cut or pull the stubble out, this problem can be solved for all of India.

In the end, arresting farmers is no solution but investing in sustainable agriculture and technology are.

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