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To breathe fresh air, opt for better agricultural technology

Delhi's air is not fit to inhale. Experts argue that prolonged exposure to toxic air could lead to serious health hazards like heart and lung diseases, various types of cancer etc. But is it the case that the smog, which engulfed the entire National Capital Region (NCR) and many of the north Indian cities during October-November was entirely caused due to burning of firecrackers in Diwali or because of vehicular emissions?

The answer is perhaps no. It is because of the fact that much before the Diwali celebrations, there were media reports of stubble burning or crop residue burning taking place in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana during the month of October.

Every year the burning of agricultural field residue, such as stalks and stubble, during the wheat and rice harvesting seasons in the Indo-Gangetic plains causes substantial emissions of trace gases (such as carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide) and particles (like black carbon, organic matter, PM 2.5, etc.).

The Inclusive Media for Change team prepared a newsalert entitled Combine Harvesters set to thicken Delhi’s Smog (please click here to access) in November, 2012 based on a paper by Ridhima Gupta.

Gupta’s working paper entitled Causes of Emissions from Agricultural Residue Burning in North-West India: Evaluation of a Technology Policy Response is based on sample surveys of farmers from Punjab, and it finds that the likelihood of using the combine-harvester increases when farmers grow coarse varieties of rice instead of fine-grained varieties such as basmati. Please click here to access this relevant study.

Gupta, who is from the Indian Statistical Institute, finds in her study that in plots that were planted with coarse varieties, farmers, on average, were 63 percent more likely to use combine-harvesters. Use of combine-harvester scatters residue and therefore makes the burning of biomass almost certain. The study says that farmers burnt 1 percent of the residue of the rice plant that they manually harvested, while they burnt 90 percent of the residue of the rice crop that was left by the combine-harvester. Therefore, one may derive the view that the use of a particular technology matters a lot to determine whether agricultural waste will be burnt.  

The study by Gupta concludes that rice residue is largely burnt because of its limited value to the farmers both as livestock feed and non-feed use. Since the machinery for planting wheat into loose rice residue was so far unavailable, farmers burnt the rice residue. The Happy Seeder technology, which is used in parts of Punjab has made it possible now to plant wheat into the loose residue thereby saving time (which is available between harvesting of rice and sowing of wheat).

The Happy Seeder machine plants seed into loose residue, making burning of residue unnecessary. The machine helps sow wheat in the standing rice stubbles. This not only stops rice straw burning, but also helps improve soil fertility by incorporation of organic matter in the soil, finds Gupta.

The study, which was done for the South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), finds that farmers will be slow to adopt Happy Seeder technology since it has no strong advantage or disadvantage from the view point of private profits.

Recent media reports suggest that although the use of equipments like Rotavator and Happy Seeder could prevent stubble burning, farmers seldom use them due to the high costs involved as compared to combine-harvesters.

Haze in Delhi happened much before the smog

The haze was visible in Delhi’s air much before the Diwali firecrackers started burning. It is because the burning of crop waste in the nearby states began just after the harvest of rice crop i.e. prior to Diwali celebrations.   

It is noteworthy that on 14 September, 2016, the Delhi High Court asked the Centre and the Delhi government to inform the court about the steps undertaken so as to curb stubble burning after harvesting of crops, which was causing smog in the NCR region. On 29 September, 2016, the Delhi High Court again asked the governments of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab about their action plan to stop the practice of crop residue burning.

Although the haze was visible in most north Indian cities since early October due to crop residue burning, air quality and visibility deteriorated drastically after 30 October i.e. after Diwali.

Table 1:  Concentration of Particulate Matter in Anand Vihar (Delhi) as on 31 November, 2016 at 00.10 am
DPCC 31 Oct 2016
Source:  Website of Delhi Pollution Control Committee, accessed on 31 October, 2016 (at midnight), please click here to access the website
 
At around midnight on 30 October, 2016 the real time data available from the website of Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) showed that the concentration of particulate matter of size equal to or less than 10 micron (PM<10µm) in the air was at a level of 1441 microgram per cubic meter (µg/m3) at Anand Vihar in Delhi, which was roughly 14 times higher than the prescribed standard of 100 µg/m3. Please see table 1.

On the same night the concentration of particulate matter of size equal to or less than 2.5 micron (PM<2.5µm) in the air was at a level of 778 µg/m3 at Anand Vihar (Delhi), which was about 13 times higher than the prescribed standard of 60 µg/m3.
 
Air quality and visibility, however, started improving in the NCR since 7 November, 2016 as wind speed picked up, although the concentration of PM<2.5µm and PM<10µm in the air are still above the danger / severe level.

Alternative solutions to end stubble burning

Ridhima Gupta’s paper (as mentioned earlier) shows that the burning of crop residues is specific to the 'rice-wheat cropping system', which is followed in states like Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh.
 
The area under rice cultivation has grown in both Punjab and Haryana since the advent of Green Revolution technology. Since there is little time available between the harvesting of paddy and sowing of wheat during October-November and the use of combine-harvesters leave behind huge quantities of rice stubble on the field (which is of little or no use as animal feed and other general uses), stubble burning is seen as a much easier and economically viable option by the farmers of Punjab and Haryana. Elumalai Kannan in his article Straws in the wind, which was published in The Hindu dated 10 November, 2016 (please click here to access) has therefore suggested to make safe and reliable energy from the biomass of paddy straw.  

Kannan has also said that the cultivation of rice and wheat in rotation over the years has put strain on land and natural resources, which resulted in micronutrient deficiency, decline in soil fertility, fall in water table etc.       

In his article entitled The arhar solution to pollution, Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian has asked for cultivation of a new variety of arhar (pigeon pea) in the paddy growing regions of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh so as to end the practise of stubble burning and to help reduce pressure on resources, which is usually associated with rice cultivation (please click here to access).

A news report by Kanwardeep Singh entitled Farmers urged to decompose crop residue, not burn, which was published in The Times of India dated 8 November, 2016 (please click here to access), says that Organo decomposer, which is a combination of lignite powder and trichoderma - a type of biofungicide, can be used to decompose agricultural waste into manure over a period of 30-45 days, thus, avoiding the need for stubble burning.


References:

Real time ambient air quality data, Delhi Pollution Control Committee, access on 31 October, 2016 (at midnight), please click here to access
 
Causes of Emissions from Agricultural Residue Burning in North-West India: Evaluation of a Technology Policy Response by Ridhima Gupta, (ISI Delhi), Working Paper, No 66–12, January 2012, South Asian Network for Development and Environmental Economics (SANDEE), please click here to access

Combine Harvesters set to thicken Delhi’s Smog, Inclusive Media for Change newsalert, 10 November, 2012, please click here to access

Straws in the wind -Elumalai Kannan, The Hindu, 10 November, 2016, please click here to access
 
Delhi air pollution: Can farmers be blamed? -Sayantan Bera, Livemint.com, 10 November, 2016, please click here to access
 
The arhar solution to pollution -Arvind Subramanian, The Indian Express, 9 November, 2016, please click here to access 

Farmers urged to decompose crop residue, not burn -Kanwardeep Singh, The Times of India, 8 November, 2016, please click here to access

Paddy stubble management: Zero biomass power plant in 3 years –Raakhi Jagga, The Indian Express, 8 November, 2016, please click here to access

Stubble burning: Growing mechanisation, increase in paddy area added to problem, Hindustan Times, 8 November, 2016, please click here to access

Haryana farmers blame mechanised harvesters for Delhi smog -Ashok Kumar, The Hindu, 7 November, 2016, please click here to access

Delhi Pollution: Prolonged exposure can cut life expectancy, affect heart, lead to cancer, The Indian Express, 6 November, 2016, please click here to access

HC asks UP, Haryana & Punjab about steps to stop crop burning, PTI/ The Times of India, 29 September, 2016, please click here to access

Delhi HC asks for listing of steps to curb stubble burning, IANS/ Business Standard, 14 September, 2016, please click here to access
 
 
Image Courtesy: Himanshu Joshi