Every year, between October and November, Delhi gets choked due to stubble burning in States of Punjab and Haryana and citizens struggle with breathing. Stakeholders tell SHALINI SAKSENA that there are several alternatives available for the farmers if only they would change their mindset

It was a bumper harvest in Punjab and Haryana this year, which meant that there was so much more residue to burn. Stubble burning is not a new problem. Each year, Delhiites struggle to breathe during the months of October and November. Each year, there is a hue and cry on how one can prevent these fires but to no avail.

According to data released by the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre, the State recorded 73,883 incidents of stubble burning between September 21 and November 14,  2020 which is the highest since 2016.

Punjab reported 51,048 cases of stubble burning in the corresponding period last year and 46,559 such incidents in 2018. The number of farm fires was 43,149 in the State during the same period in 2017.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences’ air quality monitor, SAFAR, the share of stubble burning in NCR pollution peaked to 42 per cent on November 5, when 4,135 farm fires were recorded in the region.

What if there was an alternative for the farmers? What if they had an option to not burn the stubble? What if instead of burning, one could use it to make manure, or even make idols or disposable crockery or even the much needed silica fertiliser? Believe it or not, there are many stakeholders in this sector who are doing their bit to ensure that farmers don’t resort to paddy straw burning.

Suvrat Khanna, CEO-Co-founder, Verve Renewables tells you that every year over 30 million tonnes of paddy stubble are burnt in Punjab and Haryana alone. “The idea of pledging to collect 1.5 lakh  metric tonne of agricultural waste for power generation in Haryana was initiated with the sole intention of finding a problem of stubble burning which is a serious issue across Northern India,” Khanna says.

Using agricultural waste as a source for energy production benefits farmers, bio-energy producers and the environment. Their aim is to collect one million tonnes of agro stubble by 2024 to generate approximately 2,50,000 MW of power.

Studies by Indian Agricultural Research Institute show that crop residue (mainly paddy straw) burning released 149.24 million tonnes of CO2; over nine million tonnes of carbon monoxide (CO), 0.25 million tonnes of oxides of SOX, 1.28 million tonnes of particulate matter and 0.07 million tonnes of black carbon. All of these contributed to hazardous levels of air pollution in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, and UP.

He tells you that an average paddy field generates two tonnes of paddy straw each season. Khanna, who is in his second year of operations, uses a three-pronged approach.

He looks at compensating farmers to dispose of agricultural waste like paddy straw in a sustainable manner; collects and delivers boiler ready biomass resources that could be used for generation of power by co-generation power plants attached to sugar mills and with this looks at alternative uses of stubble for energy production providing an ecological solution to air pollution.

“When we started in 2018, we wanted to tackle the issue of stubble burning, but at that time, didn’t know how to go about it. Fortunately, we came across a sugar mill which was willing. We knew that electricity could be generated from paddy straw. We requested if we could provide them with it as an alternative. They agreed. They were extremely forthcoming and made changes to their boiler,” Khanna tells you who decided to pursue this since he is from Amritsar and stubble burning is an yearly issue and from a business point of view, it all starts from finding a solution.

“We saw a problem and decided to solve it. We are a bridge between the farmer and the mills. We go into villages and tell them that they don’t have to burn, instead once they harvest, we will come and collect residue. We try to involve entire villages since it increases bale collection by the machine,” Khanna tells you.

The onus of making the bales rest with the farmers. They are encouraged to buy machines or an entrepreneur steps in. There are two kinds of balers; one that costs between Rs 20-Rs 25 lakh. This makes bales of 20-25 kg. The bigger one that makes bales of 250-300 kg and is priced at Rs 35-Rs 40 lakh upwards. The small machine can work in 20 acres of land a day and the big one 40 acres a day.

“For now, the farmers are not being paid, but there are plans for the same once the system becomes cost-effective. They don’t pay us, we don’t pay them. But we bear the cost of picking bales up; a win-win for all concerned. Convincing the farmer is not very tough since an individual farmer gets a 40 per cent subsidy to buy this machine; for custom hiring companies, there is a subsidy of up to 80 per cent. We assure the farmer with long-term association. This instills confidence in them,” Khanna tells you.

Sanjeev Nagpal, founder, Sampurn Agri Ventures Pvt Ltd, a Punjab-based company, has gone a step forward. Besides setting up a biogas plant utilising only paddy straw as the sole feed, he is converting the same into fertiliser. Unfortunately, his endeavours to mass market paddy fertilisers have run into roadblocks — agriculture policies — he tells you, for now doesn’t allow sale of silica fertiliser, a first of its kind. But he tells you that this silica is extremely important for plants. For now, individuals can buy the same for their kitchen garden and that he uses the same in his 300 acres of farmland.

“We are in the process of creating a farmers’ group and using this fertiliser, grow high quality foods and market it,” Nagpal says.

To develop the technology to convert paddy straw, Nagpal has collaborated with IIT Delhi. “We have developed this technology to process paddy straw, in collaboration with IIT Delhi, We are fermenting paddy straw to produce biogas and manure. We started this project back in 2015. We then had to get approval from Agriculture University for agriculture use in 2017. This is a silica fertiliser and agriculture policies framed in the 1960s, at the time of Green Revolution, doesn’t recognise this as a fertiliser. The Food Agriculture Organization has accepted that silica fertiliser is required by plants for sustainable agriculture. Major diseases like cancer, Diabetes are all linked to absence of silica in the human body since they are absent in the food chain,” Nagpal tells you.

In fact, this entrepreneur-farmer has already grown kinnow using this fertiliser. “The pre-booking response to this has been phenomenal. For now, we will only be supplying to nearby areas like Chandigarh but next year, we plan to increase our reach and try and supply to the rest of the country. we just need to have the logistics in place,” Nagpal explains.

He tells you that instead of creating roadblocks and looking at paddy straw as a burden; to look at it is an asset, if utilised properly. India can develop huge agri-exports if it recognises this.

“One can look at exports. But why not use the same for ourselves to produce high quality food and export the same? For now, I have used 50,000 tonnes of paddy straw over the period of five years. But I am utilising my plant at minimum capacity due to the hassles involved. At full capacity, I will require 12,000 tonnes of paddy straw per year,” Nagpal says.

He tells you that the Government has given a go ahead to promote 5,000 biogas plants in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and purchase the gas at Rs 46 per kg. “This is a huge support by the Centre. We too are supplying to the grid. If operational at full capacity I would be able to supply 1MW — supplying electricity to four-five villages. For now, I am supplying 3,000 units a day,” he says.

Setting up one huge biogas plant is not logistically possible. What is needed is a smaller one per five-six villages. “This will open up employment opportunities as well,” Nagpal explains.

Elsewhere in Andhra Pradesh, Singuru Rajesh, assistant Professor  Raghu Engineering College, Visakhapatnam and head of Green Gears, is busy collecting paddy straw as well preventing the farmers in his area to burn the same.

It all started because Singuru has breathing problems. “I have asthma; I knew that I had to look for alternatives, at least in my area. I was inspired from the ageold practices of utilising tamarind and paper to make plates. The farmers in my area are extremely cooperative. We not only use paddy straw, we also use every kind of agriculture waste to make idols, crockery and even panel insulation. The good part is that once the crockery is used one can put it into the soil it turns into manure for plants,” Rajesh tells you.

The residue is taken and cooked, pulp is extracted and the same can be used to make a variety of things depending on the mould available. For now, Rajesh is testing the products by giving it to family and friends to use it. But the COVID-19 put on hold his efforts to go for production and supply.

“It will take us a couple of years, before we can supply it across the country. I started this project in 2018. In 2019, I got Nav Bharat Nirman Award and Young Scientist Conference-2018 Award for this work. Once we have commercial viability, we will start paying the farmer as well for the residue. At full capacity, we will end up using a tonne of agriculture waste,” Rajesh says.

The problem of stubble stems from the fact that farms use machines which cuts the length leaving a portion in the land. Pulling it by hand is next to impossible. “Traditionally, the field would be ploughed mixing the stubble in the ground adding the nutrients in the soil. But because of the harvester and thresher now being used which leaves stubble and the urgency to sow another crop, the easiest option it to burn the same. But we are now telling farmers there are other options; you can give it to us,” Rajesh says.

‘Need to completely change agriculture practices’

Living in the Capital comes with many riders — some good some bad. Delhiites know that come October-November and they will find it difficult to breathe — it is time when the farmers in Punjab and Haryana get to burning stubble and get heir fields ready for the next cropping cycle.Paddy straw burning is not new.

For the last 60 years, since the push to make the country self-sufficient in food grains, farmers in Punjab and Haryana have been growing paddy. With only 1.5 per cent land, Punjab is producing 50 per cent food-grain for the country. More strange, that the State grows paddy when it is a wheat-eating State.

Umendra Dutt, founder-member and executive director of Kheti Virasat Mission, Punjab paints a dismal picture and tells you that in order to prevent stubble burning there is need to do two things.

The first is to completely change the agriculture system; not overhauling. Overhauling would mean that one has made a few changes here and there. what we need is a completely new model of cropping pattern. In a bid to make India sufficient in food grains, what we have done is totally changed the cropping pattern in the region. This means that the region known for wheat is now growing rice. Can you mean the damage that this has done here? It is something that can’t be changed overnight. While in the last few years, there are people who are coming out with alternatives to stubble burning, there are many roadblocks to these solutions,” Dutt says.

He tells you that what is needed is instead of linking cropping patterns with sustainability, what has been done is to link it with production.

“You have pushed the farmer towards mono-culture. Stubble burning is a fall-out of it. The cropping followed today, doesn’t suit the eco-system. We followed it for 50 years, but it is not possible to do so anymore. The crop cycle followed earlier used to provide the much needed nutrients. But then you changed the pattern. You pushed him to produce more; he had to shift to using fertilisers so much so that nobody looked at the long-term issues. Stubble burning is one of the side effects of changing the cropping pattern. There is no holistic approach to farming today. Farmers only saw money and not the fallout,” Dutt says.

One is told that because the farmer is in a hurry to sow the next crop — wheat — the easiest thing for him is to burn the stubble in the field. “It also means that the farmer is burning the much needed micro-nutrients in the soil increasing his dependence on fertilisers. It has become a vicious cycle,” Dutt explains.

Paddy straw is a product of mechanised agriculture. Shortage of labour and lack of time means that rice is harvested by a harvester and thresher. This leaves behind stubble. This prevents other machines from sowing wheat. With only a couple of weeks between the rice-harvesting season and the wheat-sowing, farmers burn the stubble.

“The only people who are not burning stubble are those who think that a holistic approach is the key to sustainability, those who are not dependent on subsidy or are into organic farming,” Dutt says.

The solution lies in mulching. The Government instead of spending crores on giving machines, should spend money to change the mindset of the farmers.

“Farmers should be encouraged to follow organic farming. He should be shown alternatives. It’s not an issue of technology, it is about human psychology, attitude, behaviour and environment. If you change farmer’s attitude and are associated with him long-term, he will not burn stubble. Instead of technology intervention, show the farmer environmental psychology intervention. Show him that soil has life as well and it will take care of stubble burning,” Dutt says.