Sukhi Ram, 36, a farmer from Chanarthal Village in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district, hired three workers to harvest his rice crop and separate the straw. It took two days to finish the harvest and another five days for the harvest residues to completely dry out and catch fire.
Ram, who cultivates 500 square meters of land (0.124 acres), is aware of the controversy over burning crop residues and its environmental impacts. But for someone with such a small piece of land, using machines to remove stubble is not an economically viable option, he says.
“I have a trucking business on the sidelines, which was hit hard during the Covid-19 shutdown. Even if that’s not the case, for farmers like me who don’t own a lot of land, hiring machines to remove stubble is not a very favorable option. We could change if the government presents a better alternative, “said Ram.
HT traveled through villages in the Kurukshetra, Karnal and Kaithal districts, areas of which the highest number of stubble burning cases are recorded each year in Haryana.
Several farmers with small holdings (less than an acre) said the government reached out to them to raise awareness about the harmful effects of burning stubble, but added that they were not offered any real alternatives.
Haryana government officials said that while they expect agricultural fire cases to be lower this year compared to the previous year due to the easy availability of stubble removal machines such as Happy Seeder and Super Seeder, they agreed that several small farmers they are already burning the waste. in their fields.
“We have reached out to farmers to make buying and hiring machines easy and affordable for them, but for farmers with small properties, the machines are basically useless. For them, burning is a cheaper option than taking advantage of the government subsidy, ”said an official from the Kurukshetra administration.
Delhi government data show that last year stubble burning accounted for 44% of the city’s air pollution, an annual problem that plunges the city into a health emergency in the winter months, making it one of the most polluted cities in the world.
Experts say that in addition to causing air pollution, burning stubble also affects soil fertility as it causes the loss of nitrogen, sulfur, potassium and bacterial content from the soil.
The latest data from the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) shows that between September 25 and 29, 120 incidents of burning crop stubble were recorded in the state.
Most of these fires occurred in the Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Fatehabad and Ambala districts.
“We are keeping a close eye on these fires, but in recent years we have seen the numbers steadily declining and we expect that this year as well, the number of agricultural fires will be lower compared to last year. said S Narayanan, HSPCB member secretary.
Last year, 6,364 cases of stubble burning were reported in the state compared to 10,288 in 2018. With 12.50 lakh hectares of rice, Haryana is the second largest producer of rice waste in the country, after neighboring Punjab.
To reduce stubble burning incidents, the state last year established 2,879 custom hiring centers, providing up to 15,928 stubble removal machines to farmers. This year, its goal is to provide 2,741 machines, including 791 straw balers.
Karamvir Singh, the head of Chochra village in Karnal district, said that while the village panchayats are working to provide easy access to the machines at a subsidized fee for farmers, unless away is encouraged from burning, the practice cannot be stopped completely.
“Today all a farmer needs to get rid of stubble is a box of matches. Therefore, unless there is a monetary incentive to encourage him to change, no level of consciousness can stop this practice, ”Singh said.
Last year, the Supreme Court ordered the governments of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh to give ₹ 100 per quintal for non-basmati products as incentives for farmers who do not burn their stubble. The superior court also ordered the three states to bear the operating cost of contracting agricultural waste handling machines on behalf of small and marginal farmers.
Most farmers in Karnal, Kaithal and Kurukshetra districts, however, said that the incentive had not yet been distributed.
An official from the Haryana chief secretary’s office said: “All district officials have been directed to ensure that machines are available to farmers, especially small and marginalized farmers, at very nominal rates. We are also working to provide them with monetary incentives, ”said an official from the CS office.
Satellite images from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) show that the number of fires observed in Haryana has increased over the past week.
“More fires have started to appear in Haryana in recent days, while the numbers are lower in Punjab compared to last week,” said Pawan Gupta, Research Scientist at Goddard Earth Sciences Technology and Research (GESTAR), Universities Space Research Association.
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