Every year, the farmers in North India, especially in the state of Punjab, burn parali or stubble in order to get rid of the crop residue. The practice has become a common occurrence every year around October and November. The smoke from this stubble burning travels to the national capital, thanks to the wind patterns, and chokes Delhi.
Interestingly, paddy is grown across the country, but farmers in other parts of India do not burn stubble at the scale farmers from Punjab and neighbouring states, including Haryana etc., do. Author Sanjeev Sanyal shared some information about the root cause of the practice. In a tweet thread, Sanyal mentioned that the practice of crop burning has picked up pace only recently. Earlier, the farmers in Punjab and neighbouring states did not follow the practice with this dedication. So what changed in a decade and a half that started a chain of events choking Delhi every year?
Delhi AQI is running at 500-800 range. In fact, one can actually smell the ash particles in the air. The burning of crop residue is the single biggest source. So why did farmers in Punjab started doing this? It was not such a widespread practice till recently 1/n pic.twitter.com/2ftFGU9OiU
— Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) November 3, 2022
He shared satellite images of the Kharif crop cycle from 2005 and 2021 from the Economic Survey 2021-22.
As shown in image below, kharif sowing only gets going in early July. This means that crops are still standing in late Oct and have to be hurriedly harvested in early Nov. This means that there is just a week to clear the land for rabi sowing – hence crop burning 3/n pic.twitter.com/CE0DpimZck
— Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) November 3, 2022
The report reads, “The images in Figures 6A & 6B compare the Kharif crop cycle in Moga district, Punjab, between 2005 and 2021. The images show that the Kharif sowing cycle has shifted ahead by around two-to-three weeks, causing the Kharif harvest to almost coincide with Rabi sowing in November. Closing the gap is a likely factor that encourages farmers to burn stubble and may be related to restrictions on the early transplanting of Kharif paddy. These restrictions were introduced in 2009 in order to reduce pumping of groundwater but may have had the unintended consequence of damaging air quality.”
In November 2019, OpIndia published a detailed report on why stubble burning has become a huge problem in recent years. Before 2009, farmers from Punjab and Haryana used to sow paddy in April and May. As shown in the satellite images above, during those years, the harvest would have been completed by September and October. During these months, the wind patterns do not push the smoke toward Delhi.
However, things changed in 2009 when the governments of Punjab and Haryana introduced regulations and pushed the sowing time forward by three weeks. The idea behind the step was to discourage farmers from using the groundwater for paddy plants as the monsoon does not reach North during April and May. Paddy requires a lot of water to grow, and due to the lack of rain, farmers use groundwater without any restrictions.
Instead of encouraging farmers to use a different variety of paddy or discouraging them from sowing paddy altogether, the governments decided to push the sowing time by three weeks. The step taken by the government changed the harvesting period and pushed it to the months of October and November. As of now, 40% of the paddy crop is standing in Punjab, waiting to get harvested. The farmers in Punjab have burnt paddy residue at much higher frequency compared to previous years. A total of 35%+ increase in stubble-burning incidents have taken place in the state. Unfortunately, the state has miserably failed to implement measures to stop farmers from burning stubble.
Modern machinery adds to the problem
The combines, machines used to harvest the crop and separate the grains on the spot, only reap the grains, leaving the stalks of stubble standing in the field. When the crop is harvested manually, the crop is cut much below, and it is taken out of the field for processing, therefore, not much stubble remains on the field.
Moreover, the husk is fodder for cattle, so farmers harvest and stock it in other states, particularly in North-Eastern and Eastern states. Farmers harvest crops manually in these states, and as floods hit these states during monsoon, the harvested husk acts as feed for their livestock when the grazing fields are flooded.
