Every year, the smoke produced by stubble burning by farmers in North India has been a major subject of concern due to the considerable health risks it poses. However, data shows that Haryana is working extensively to reduce stubble-burning incidents.
According to available data, Haryana has not only seen a considerable decline in the number of occurrences of stubble burning this year but has also seen a large drop in similar incidents over the previous six years.
As per a report by The Indian Express, Haryana has, till November 3, 2022, reported 2,377 incidences of stubble burning, compared to 3,438 recorded on November 3 in 2021, a remarkable 30% decline.
Notably, this downward trend has been consistent in the past six years. Haryana has reduced stubble-burning instances by more than 55% during the last six years. The total number of such accidents decreased from 15,686 in 2016 to 6,987 in 2021.
Farmers in Haryana’s Karnal district said the reduction in stubble-burning incidents this year was largely due to private contractors providing free balers to farmers and selling crop residue bales to cardboard factories, biomass plants, boilers, and ethanol plants at a small markup. Balers are machines used to compress crop residue into compact bales.
“It is a win-win for farmers and contractors (zamindars). The baler costs over Rs 15 lakh and requires three machines tied to a tractor to process paddy into compact bales. With additional input costs of diesel and employing labour, it’s quite expensive for a farmer to purchase it, despite the subsidy given by the government for these implements. So, baler owners are using a farmer’s land to clear paddy and taking bales from crop residue to sell them for around Rs 170 a quintal. The cost is borne by baler owners; a baler can clear a 20-acre area fairly quickly. As compared to last year, more machines are available for use and there is more awareness among farmers regarding pollution. So, farm fires have considerably reduced,” said farmer Kuldeep Waraich from Ramba village.
Waraich also asserted that in some cases, farmers were paying these contractors a fraction of the subsidy given to them by the government for not burning stubble.
Decline in stubble burning incidents attributed to the incentives provided to farmers by Haryana Govt
Officials from the Haryana Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department attributed the decrease in stubble burning across the state to a variety of incentives, including cash rewards and subsidies, provided to farmers in exchange for not burning stubble and practising in-situ and ex-situ crop management. According to government officials, numerous farmers are also using super seeders and happy seeder equipment to sow wheat directly into paddy residues.
As per the report, the state government has provided a provision for a Rs 1,000 per acre incentive for those who do not burn stubble. In addition, farmers are provided Rs 50 per quintal incentive cash and subsidy on straw management equipment for creating stubble bales. Farmers will receive a 50% subsidy on agricultural residue management equipment and an 80% subsidy on custom hiring centres. If a farmer brings stubble bales to the ethanol facilities in Karnal and Panipat, he receives Rs 2,000 per acre, and if he takes stubble to gaushalas, he receives Rs 1,500.
Dr Hardeep Singh, the Director General of the Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, said, “Over 72,770 crop residue management machines were given to farmers till last year and 7,146 machines will be provided this year. The government is also providing operational charges for machinery. In villages located in red zones (where 6 or more stubble burning cases are reported), cash rewards are being given to the panchayat as an incentive if they bring the cases to zero. Several lakh tonnes of paddy husks are being used in biomass power projects in the state and more such plants will be commissioned. Over 2.5 lakh kits of PUSA decomposer capsules are being provided for 2.5 lakh acre area for being sprayed to destroy stubble.”
Waste-to-energy plants helping Haryana control stubble burning
Haryana now has ten power plants that create around 84MW of electricity from paddy straw. In addition, the Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency (HAREDA) owns two paddy straw-based biomass power facilities in Kurukshetra and Kaithal that consume 3.5 lakh MT of agricultural waste and generate 15 MW of electricity each.
Haryana has also established a 2G ethanol plant at IOCL’s Panipat refinery, the country’s first such commercial project, which will directly manufacture 100 kilogrammes of ethanol per day from 425.5 metric tonnes of dry corn stover. According to its current capacity, this factory will consume around 4,250 quintals of paddy straw from approximately 212 acres each day and empty approximately 77,562 acres each year.
According to officials, roughly 8 lakh MT of crop residue was used in industries in 2021-22, with the government aiming to increase that figure to around 13 lakh MT this year.
Even private companies have shown interest in establishing waste-to-energy facilities in the state, with 65 project developers submitting Letters of Intent (LOI) under the SATAT initiative to establish paddy straw-based compressed biogas projects.
Farmers fined for stubble burning
To dissuade farmers from burning stubble or parali, the Haryana government has issued 1,041 challans and fined farmers in various paddy sowing districts approximately 26 lakh so far for burning crop residue.
According to reports published on October 28, 2022, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind and Karnal were among the districts where a maximum number of farmers had been issued challans for burning the paddy stubble after harvesting.
While, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are adopting preventive steps like information, education and communication activities, besides promoting ex-situ and in-situ management of stubble to reduce stubble burning, OpIndia highlighted how Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders have been giving presser after presser blaming the central government and bordering states for the hazardous air quality in the national capital. The AAP govt in Punjab has done little to control stubble burning in the state, the smoke emitted from which travels to the national capital, thanks to the wind patterns, and chokes Delhi.
Interestingly, the Centre’s panels on air pollution also said in its assessment that the AAP-led Punjab Government took negligible steps to control stubble burning. The Centre pointed out the bio-decomposers’ field experiments were successful in UP, Haryana and Delhi. No efforts were made in Punjab by the state government to employ the technique for stubble management.
