The air quality index for Delhi, Ghaziabad and Noida were in the ‘severe’ category with values of 469, 500 and 500 respectively according to the Central Pollution Control Board.
Incentivising alternative uses of stubble and promoting technological solutions to recycle it can help check pollution.
What are the factors contributing to air pollution?
Stubble burning by farmers in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana is the prime reason.
Stubble burning is still continuing in this regions despite it being banned by the Punjab Pollution Control Board.
Construction dusts and high traffic had also aggravated air pollution in Delhi and surrounding cities.
This coincides almost each year with the onset of foggy winters in North India.
What measures need to be taken to address stubble burning?
Stubble management -In most rice growing regions of Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, farmers get economic value for paddy straw by selling it as cattle feed.
Both Punjab and Gujarat are home to sizeable dairy co-operatives, which can follow South India’s model.
There is a huge agri-business opportunity for the farmers in this region by trading nutrition-rich stubble for livestock and unlocking a potential value-added chain.
Economic incentives -Investment by State governments in ramping up mechanisation with built-in incentives for farmers will help generate additional income for farmers.
It will also create additional employment opportunities in this region.
Private partnership -In much of the US and Europe, crop stubble is cut into bales, and is a much sought after by mushroom growers, livestock owners, and for pulp.
Crop stubble can be repurposed to create another value chain around low-cost, eco-friendly wood products.
For all this private sector and its expertise can be roped in to create necessary infrastructure and transport links to connect the farms to retail markets.
Encouraging Innovation -Punjab Agricultural University had invented a Super-Straw Management System (SSMS).
It works to cut, take out stubble, drill wheat seeds, and evenly deposit any loose crop residue over the farm.
SSMS deposits crop residue over the farm, adding organic matter over time, retaining nutrients, water and replenishing soil structure.
Such innovations need to be encouraged by the government till it reaches every farmers of this region.
