-The Financial Express By setting the target of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, the prime minister has clearly signalled a transition in agri-food policy from an excessive emphasis on foodgrain production towards improving welfare of the farming community. Given the continued excessive employment pressure, proliferation of small landholdings and growing agrarian crisis, this move is indeed an important change in the policy landscape. Doubling farmers’ income, however, requires identification of high-income...

-ThePrint.in The paddy being grown in Punjab is alien to conditions in Punjab, and the burning of its stubble has had a big impact on the state’s air quality. Punjab is an agrarian state with predominant wheat-paddy cropping cycle. During the kharif season every year, paddy is grown in standing water on about 2.9 million hectares of land. This paddy crop, taken up by Punjab farmers in the early 1980s, is alien to...

-Hindustan Times The paddy straw is of no use to the farmer unlike the wheat straw, which is used as animal fodder. The paddy straw has high silica content that animals can’t digest. Chandigarh: The plain farming chore of burning after-harvest paddy stalks as farmers prepared their fields in Punjab and Haryana for the wheat crop never headlined so much as in the past month. The swirling smoke from the fire is blamed...

-The Indian Express Delhi air pollution: The current smog and poor air quality in the National Capital Region has been blamed in part on stubble burning by farmers, especially in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana. What is the genesis of the problem? What are its potential solutions? * How widespread is crop stubble burning? It is mainly confined to Punjab, Haryana and parts of western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where farmers grow paddy and...

-ThePrint.in From mixing the stubble into soil, to making manure and use in the packaging industry, there are a lot of ways in which the problem of stubble burning can be solved. North-west India is currently in the grips of a poisonous smog, produced by farmers through paddy straw and stubble burning. The smog is affecting the germination and growth of crops, as well has having a harmful effect on human health. Farmers...