Stubble smoke returns

STUBBLE burning in India, particularly, Punjab and Haryana, is a problem mainly because it makes high-profile residents of the National Capital Region wheeze. Otherwise, about 93 million tonne of crop residue is burnt in 28 states, but only two states are held culprits because of one reason — the wind direction. According to the National Policy for Management of Crop Residues, the burning of stubble is predominant in four states — UP, Punjab, Haryana and West Bengal. In fact, UP is the largest producer of crop residue and the biggest culprit of stubble burning. It, however, escapes media attention thanks to the wind direction that guides it away from Delhi to its hinterlands where public concern over breathability takes a back seat amidst other existential problems. Anyway, Delhi must be credited for keeping alive the issue of damage to the environment every winter.  

 Any knee-jerk reaction to resolve this issue is bound to fail unless policy makers understand the constraints that force farmers to burn stubble on the field. They have a very small window of about a fortnight to clean the paddy field for sowing the next crop. The on-farm burning of stubble is an outcome of a vicious chain — shortage of human labour encourages mechanised harvesting, the prime reason for the stubble. The high cost of residue disposal prompts farmers to the most economical option, a matchstick. The other option of making stubble a paying proposition by finding uses for it needs to be explored on a war-footing.    

The Centre has done what it is good at. It allocated a paltry sum of Rs 1,152 crore last year to Punjab, Haryana, UP and Delhi to tackle this menace for 2018-20. But, ground reality remained the same. Farmers are not interested in purchasing subsidised implements to clean stubble post harvest, because after few days of use, these machines would become junk. Instead, the government should have created pools of machines at the village level for community use. It should also consider procuring stubble from farmers for industrial use and incentivise farmers instead of resorting to futile penalties.