Crop residue burning poses an environmental and health hazard.
Hence, the Centre’s policy for mitigate the crisis needs cautious evaluation.
What are the government initiatives?
Each acre of paddy generates about 2-3 MT (metric tonnes) of residue, which needs to be managed in a short window of about three weeks.
Otherwise, the farmer has to burn the residue (to get rid of them) in order to clear the field for sowing the next crop.
Schemes - The Centre has allocated Rs 1,050 crores to the states where crop residue burning poses a pollution hazard.
Additionally, union agricultural ministry is also implementing a scheme for mechanisation to ensure proper ‘crop residue management’.
Currently, the most cost-effective and beneficial way to manage the residue is to use the “zero-till sowing machine” called Happy Seeder.
Hence, the mechanisation scheme is targeted at manufacturers and envisions a supply of about 26,000 seeder machines to the market within 2 years.
What are the challenges?
Magnitude - High-powered tractors and skilled personnel are required to operate Happy Seeders effectively, both of which are currently in short supply.
In addition to this, there are merely 2,000 Happy Seeders that are currently in use – which makes it a herculean task for the scheme to achieve its targets.
Scheduling - The current cropping pattern in priority states like Punjab is that paddy is sown in “July-October” season and wheat is sown in November.
The residual paddy stubble (of the July sowing) is what is burned in November (winter smog time) to clear the field for the Wheat.
If the wheat crop is mechanically sowed by using Happy Seeder, then there is no need for clearing the crop residue (seeding can be done in un-cleared fields).
But, to employ “Happy Seeder” effectively for the November wheat crop, the field needs to be levelled using a laser leveller before the July paddy is sown.
Also, the last watering of the paddy crop has to be timed according to the date of paddy harvest, which must coincide with the date of wheat sowing.
Such demanding timelines could be a big stress on the farmers due to the highly uncertain parameters under which they work.
Confidence Building - Firstly, the farmers have to be convinced that their yields will not suffer due to the use a Happy Seeder.
For this, farmers will have to be shown field demonstrations by employing Happy Seeders and reaping the same tonnage of produce.
But sadly, such demonstrations were undertaken on sufficient scale in the current crop cycle, which is nearing its end.
The government also needs to recognize that it is a big risk to push farmers to mechanised seeders without sufficient field data.
If employment of mechanised seeders sees a drop in crop yield, farmers might revert to stubble burning and become non-receptive to future advances.
Bureaucracy - Even theoperational guidelines for the mechanisation scheme aren’t ready and there is every indication that it is doomed to fail.
Even the scheme’s draft seem to be a merely refurbishment of a pre-existing scheme for the overall promotion of mechanisation in agriculture.
Funding is spread over two years with the condition that funds will lapse if they are not utilised in the year for which they were allocated.
While the scheme is completely centrally funded, its implementation (a big challenge) lies with the states - these calls for better policy level coordination.
Other Challenges - Very few people in this system have ground-level experience of working on the new zero-till machines.
Blistering television commercials and programs as envisioned under the scheme are also unlikely to nudge farmers to take up mechanisation.
Rather, a peer-to-peer campaign could be considered, for which a corpus of information harbingers need to be commissioned at the village level.
