Every year, as winter approaches, reports of worsening air quality in north India—particularly the National Capital Region—consistently abound. Academic and journalistic sources have often attributed about 40% of these bouts of air pollution to stubble (parali) burning undertaken by farmers from Punjab and surrounding areas. It is not uncommon to hear of hundreds of incidents of stubble burning in a single day—particularly in Punjab. But in recent times, some improvements have been recorded in the state, with power plants utilizing this parali being built, some of the stubble being transported to be used as fodder in dairy farms and various other measures being undertaken. However, this does not imply the problem is solved. The state has sizable ground to cover in infrastructure development and incentivization measures before the practice of stubble burning is fully curbed—how this is to be done is the question.
As with most problems that exist in certain geographies, but have been addressed effectively elsewhere, one wise approach is to take inspiration from those that have seen success in such addressals. For Punjab, the process of this reflection can be both inward and outward. In this article, we offer five different solutions to effectively amortize the problem of stubble burning in the state, basing each on approaches that have worked both within Punjab—in the districts of Pathankot and Faridkot—and outside, like in states such as Chhattisgarh and Delhi.
In the district of Pathankot, 28,500 hectares of land are used to grow paddy every year, generating around 1.35 lakh metric tonnes of stubble annually. However, Pathankot this year saw only one event of stubble burning. The district’s silver bullet to the problem has been to redirect these mounds of stubble to be fed to milch animals by encouraging cattle owners to collect them from fields for just Rs. 2500 to 3000 per hectare—thereby also providing the paddy cultivators a reliable and non-trivial source of income. Made possible through massive awareness campaigns, from utilizing everything from mobile vans to Youtube and WhatsApp, the strategy has been a marked success. With state government intervention in other districts, by procuring parali from farmers and either utilizing sites owned by the Food Corporation of India to store them or by incentivizing farmers or asking dairies to cover transportation costs and efforts, the Pathankot model can be replicated in almost all other places.
Another way to make use of Parali is by using it in place of domestic coal in power plants. It is highly effective due to having a GCV similar to that of domestic coal (14-15 MJ/kg), economically feasible, selling for only around Rs. 2/kg at farms and also sustainable, being used to reduce stubble burning. This can be utilized in 10-15 large thermal power plants in Punjab and Haryana, and can take care of 30% of the total parali generated. Its scientific and technical feasibility has been proven by firing done at Sterlite, L&T, NTPC and others. The commercial viability and operational feasibility is now upon the state power regulator and the private sector. With how coal prices abroad and domestic production prices stand today, it would make great sense for power plants to substitute a portion of their fuel with Parali—in fact a mandate on similar lines for thermal power plants to use 10% biomass for power production is already in place, as directed by the power ministry. Much of what has curbed this practice from already becoming widespread is a set of awareness and logistical barriers. With sufficient government support or even self organization by creating points of contacts in each block for a power plant, increasing the use of baling machines to compress straw quantities and adequate assessment of the parali by local bodies such as panchayats through definition of quality metrics for it—which in turn would have to be done by researchers—this too can become a widespread practice in the state.
Thirdly, the success of Kheti Virasat Mission (KVM), a non-profit based in the district of Faridkot in reducing stubble burning gives us yet another clue to a method replicable at scale. KVM, through large awareness campaigns, conferences and many more, has for many years, encouraged farmers to take up mulching as opposed to stubble burning. Mulching is the process of using material such as crop residue/parali and applying it to the surface of soil, essentially creating the practice of organic farming. In 2021, KVM reported high rates of farmer adoption of this practice in place of crop burning and soaring farmer satisfaction post adoption as well. State and non-profit encouragement of adoption of organic farming may thus be another avenue of curbing stubble burning. While Faridkot did report a sizable number of crop residue burning incidents in 2022 (2693), it has been one of the districts that has seen considerable improvement, down from approximately 3900 in 2020.
Finally, for rural Punjab, yet another highly effective model in repurposing parali comes from Chhattisgarh. Gauthans, 5 acre plots of land earmarked from common areas in the village for carrying out activities of benefit to the village—be it commercial or social—can be utilized extensively to convert all the parali generated in the vicinity to organic fertilizer. This can be done through various ways: by setting up yards for composting, bio-gas plants or briquetting/charring plants, all of which individually take up less than half of the total 5 acres earmarked in principle. Large corporations, utilizing CSR funds, can collaborate with panchayats and local bodies to identify such lands and utilize cutting edge agritech to assist the conversion process. The process by itself can be inspired from one currently being put to use in the farms of Delhi: a proprietary microbial solution called ‘PUSA’ developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. The solution converts stubble to manure in nearly just a fortnight while also usually being paired with a satellite monitoring system to monitor the crops. Almost all of these activities will yield profitable results for the resources spent, with costs for procuring and transporting the parali amounting to about Rs. 4500 and the organic fertilizer produced having the potential to be sold for upwards of 5500 Rs. And as always with sufficient state support through encouragement of panchayats to take up the same and the like, it would not be too difficult to completely rid some districts—particularly those rural—of all crop residue burning.
Overall, various tested solutions adopted in many districts within Punjab and states outside exist, providing Punjab with near-readymade models for replicability. All that remains to move is the political and individual will required to promote the adoption of these and the organization of funds to ameliorate logistical concerns. This will truly help create profit and purpose for people to save their plant, and convert the evil of pollution into a blessing of prosperity.
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