NEW DELHI: Expect no immediate relief from the severe pollution in winter caused due to farm fires as a draft report of the NITI Aayog has pegged the cost of finding a permanent solution to the problem at a whopping Rs 1,477 crore
Punjab, Haryana and western parts of Uttar Pradesh are the biggest contributors of burning crop stubble between October and December every year.
“Ensuring that the crop residue is not burnt in the field requires a two-pronged strategy. Firstly, in-situ utilisation or soil incorporation of crop residue (that remains standing in the field after combine harvesting) needs to be prioritised and popularised among farmers. Secondly, enhancing the value of paddy-straw as a raw material for energy extraction or similar products is another aspect of the solution,” the draft report of a task force on air pollution, which is headed by the additional secretary AK Mehta in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, has noted. The copy of the draft report is with The Sunday Standard.
The report recommends, as an immediate measure to curb rise in air pollution during winters, financial support for farmers to implement some of the in-situ and on-farm management techniques. Stating that financial support could be extended to farmers through direct benefit transfer (DBT) system, the draft report has estimated that a total of Rs 4,488 crore would be required each year. The task force arrived at the cost by taking into account 1.35 million hectare in Haryana (Rs 655 crore), 2.98 million hectare in Punjab (Rs 1,862 crore) and 5.87 million hectare in Uttar Pradesh (Rs 1,971 crore).
Furthermore, the task force has suggested that a reward scheme for village panchayats with zero burning be adopted with an aim to make them role models. “A maximum support of Rs 10 lakh per panchayat is suggested. Considering 70,869 panchayats in the states of Haryana, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh, the total outlay for this reward scheme is estimated to be Rs 7,000 crore,” the draft report stated.
The task force has also sought reliable monitoring to track farm fires through a network of Indian Remote Sensing Agency and state-level remote sensing stations.
In contrast to the popular perception of blaming farmers for the fires, the task force has reasoned that mechanised harvesting of crops along with enhanced quality of seeds which give high silica contents in the paddy crops leave crop stubble standing in the fields. “Currently, the farmers are left with no option but to burn the stubble down since they have only 15-20 days window to sow the next crop,” stated the task force in its draft report.
In the case of Punjab, the task force has stated that it is the third largest rice producing state and usually generates approximately 19.7 million tonnes of paddy straw annually, of which only 4.3 million tonnes are used for animal fodder, industry and in-situ incorporation. Punjab alone contributes to burning of 15.4
million tonnes crop stubble in the fields.