NEW DELHI: Months leading to the winter are known for the farm fires in neighbouring states – a major cause of air pollution in the national capital. This time around, the Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in both Delhi and Punjab, plans to offer cash incentives to farmers to refrain from burning stubble. The party has also requested the Centre to share the cost for the same, officials said.
“We have prepared a proposal to provide a cash incentive to farmers who desist from burning paddy straw. The plan is that the Centre should bear 50% of the cost and Punjab and Delhi will contribute 25% each,” said a senior Punjab government official.
The official said that Delhi will share the cost since smoke from farm fires impact air quality in the national capital. “The proposal has been sent to the Centre. Once it is approved, it will be tabled before the Punjab cabinet,” the official said.
However, the official went on to say that the Punjab and Delhi governments are ready to implement the scheme even if the Centre doesn’t agree. The period from early October to November in Delhi sees major smog episodes on account of paddy straw (stubble) burning in Punjab and Haryana, the fumes thus produced adding to the pollutants over Delhi and the NCR.
This is the time when farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the paddy stubble to ready their farms for sowing rabi (wheat) crops, as there is a brief window between the harvest of kharif (paddy – various varieties of rice) and for preparing the farms to sow the next crop. Punjab, with a much larger region under cultivation, generates around 20 million tons of paddy straw annually.
Under a Centre-sponsored scheme, farm machinery is provided to farmers at a subsidised rate for in-situ management of the stubble. But, not all farmers are able to procure the machinery for various reasons including its cost and despite the Centre’s initiative, farm fires have continued contributing largely to bad air episodes in the capital.
“Farmers say a cash incentive can help them cover the cost of fuel used in operating the machinery,” said a Delhi government official. However, this will not be the first time that Punjab will give cash incentives to farmers for not burning stubble. The state governments of Punjab and Haryana had announced a bonus of `2,500 an acre for small and marginal farmers in 2019 too, following the Supreme Court’s suggestion to incentivise farmers to stop farm fires. But, a paucity of funds stalled the scheme. Punjab had even requested the Centre for financial assistance but to no avail.
As per Indian Agricultural Research Institute, last year Punjab had reported 71,304 farm fires between September 15 and November 30 while 83,002 farm fires in the corresponding period in 2020. Last year, the share of farm fires in the city’s PM 2.5 pollution had peaked to 48% on November 7.