-The Indian Express Farmers in Punjab and Haryana have been setting fire to their fields after harvesting of paddy since the 1980s. That was since the time combine machines, instead of manual labourers, started being used for harvesting and threshing their grain. Jalandhar, Pune: The problem of air pollution from paddy stubble burning is ultimately about a simple trade-off: between more smoke and less water. Farmers in Punjab and Haryana have been...

-The Tribune Chandigarh: The Punjab Government’s policy of delaying sowing of paddy has resulted in deteriorating air quality, a study carried out by researchers of Harvard University, US, has found. The study titled “Detection of delay in post-monsoon agricultural burning across Punjab, India: potential drivers and consequences for air quality” carried out by Tianjia Liu of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Loretta J Mickley of the School of Engineering...

-The Indian Express The state government maintains that farm fires in Punjab contribute barely over 15 per cent to Delhi’s pollution. But officials in Sangrur admit there are problems, including the slow switch to “expensive” mechanical alternatives to stubble burning. Sangrur: To know why the National Capital is choking, visit Sangrur in Punjab — the district that recorded the highest number of farm fires in a single day this year. One of...

  Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the public health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...

-The New Indian Express Sudam Sahu, a progressive farmer from Bargarh who has been growing Kalabati Dhana from 2014, collected two varieties of black rice seeds from Nayagarh which he has preserved till now. SAMBALPUR: A group of farmers in Western Odisha is not just reaping the benefit of cultivating black rice but also popularising the crop among paddy growers in the region. Black rice has a niche market for its nutritional and...