-Hindustan Times Flood-based irrigation in Haryana, Punjab a threat to groundwater which is depleting over 3 feet every year Chandigarh: Breaking the traditional wheat-paddy cycle is the need of the hour to preserve groundwater for the future generations, reveals a research conducted by scientists of the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Karnal (Haryana). Asserting that the rice crop alone consumes about 50% of the total irrigation water, the researchers have suggested radical...

-The Week Flower growers across the country might be forced to discontinue cultivation Times have never been so rotten, say flower growers as the sight of wilting flowers across fields during the nationwide lockdown are driving them to despair. If the government does not step in to help them, these floriculturists might be forced to discontinue flower cultivation. Ram Chander, a 40-year-old flower grower in the village of Ramnagar (Mal block, Lucknow) has...

-Hindustan Times Instead of paddy, farmers have to be incentivised to move to millets It feels like a war. The hapless farmers of Punjab and Haryana pitted against the angry, breathless urbanites of the National Capital Region. The farmers are burning paddy stubble, contributing to between a fifth to a third of the air pollution in Delhi these days. This has pushed the air quality to unliveable levels. It is endangering...

-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...

  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...