Question

Farmers spread fine pieces of straw on the top of the soil.What is this kind of

practice known as?​

Answer 1

Explanation:

The pattern of burning crop residue in India is changing. The practice is no longer limited to the post-monsoon crop of rice or the northern states of Punjab and Haryana

On April 20, there was a piece of good news for residents of Delhi from the sky, literally. A satellite image released by the American space agency, NASA, showed that incidents of crop residue burning in Delhi’s neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana had significantly reduced compared to last year. But the joy was short-lived as subsequent images showed a spike in crop residue burning from the two states.

A year ago, when the Delhi government implemented the second edition of the odd-even vehicle restriction during April 15-30 to fight air pollution, the Central Pollution Control Board, to everyone’s surprise, found that the pollution levels had increased during the experiment. This put a question mark on the efficacy of the emergency measure. Clean air campaigners and members of the Environment Pollution (Prevention & Control) Authority (EPCA), a body appointed on the Supreme Court’s directive to oversee environmental issues in the National Capital Region, went through volumes of data to understand this paradox. That answer came from an image sent by a NASA satellite. The image showed that the smoke from crop residue burning in Punjab and Haryana had travelled to the national capital, causing the rise in air pollution.

“But farmers don’t burn the rabi wheat crop residue, because it is an important fodder. We knew then that there was widespread burning post-paddy harvest—from October end till mid-November each year. This was happening because farmers in Punjab and Haryana were caught in a vicious time-cycle—they had to harvest rice and cultivate wheat in a space of 10-15 days. Rice straw was not a useful fodder, but we did not know about the burning of wheat residue,” explains Bhure Lal, former bureaucrat and now chairperson of EPCA. What then is happening? Why are farmers burning valuable fodder? Is this only about Punjab and Haryana? No.

Researchers at Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) point at a shocking, stark and unseen reality: “Central India, parts of north and north-east India and even countries in Southeast Asia are densely dotted in red in the NASA image. Each mark is a sign of biomass burning—crop, forest or whatever. It is almost as if all of India and parts of Southeast Asia are on fire,” says Anumita Roychowdhury of CSE.

The image paints a complicated picture. The dots—hundreds of them concentrated in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and a few pockets in southern India represent biomass burning. What is happening? But more than providing answers, the image has raised questions. As explained, traditionally, November-December—the post-harvest period of the monsoon crop of paddy—is the time when farmers burn crop residue. Close to 80 per cent of the entire crop residue burning takes place in these months. This mostly happens in Punjab and Haryana, and the practice is under extreme scrutiny due to its impact on the air in Delhi.

The pattern, however, is changing. Though there is no official data, trends show that India has a new season of crop residue burning: April-May. And the crop involved is wheat, which earlier was not the case. What’s worse, the practice has spread to other states. But why? There is no shortage of time because after harvesting wheat, farmers have a two-month gap before they cultivate the monsoon crops. Extracting stubble also makes financial sense because it can be used as fodder. In India, which faces a fodder shortage of 22 per cent and where wheat crop residue is the preferred fodder, there shouldn’t be a need to burn crop residue. So, are there other factors? Joining these dots is critical because on it depends our right to clean air and the source of livelihood of the majority of Indians—agriculture.

To seek answers to these questions, Down To Earth sent four correspondents to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Punjab and Haryana, while three others researched on issues related to crop residue burning. The findings throw new light on the state of farming and mechanisms to control air pollution in the country