Farm fire count low, coming weeks a challenge to keep it that way

The Supreme Court intervention at the start of the paddy harvesting season ensured that the state government was on its toes throughout the period, thereby ensuring a stringent check on farm fires.

Result—the farm fires are on an all time low compared to previous years when the blame game was in full throttle when the  fire count spiked. In the past 24 hours, Punjab witnessed 67 new farm fires, taking the total to 308, far less than the count of 1,444 and 1,393 in 2023 and 2024 respectively, on the same date.

The apex court pulled up the state government, asking why some errant farmers shouldn’t be arrested for the practice, considered as a key contributor to the winter pollution in northern India, especially Delhi and areas around it.

Even the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) held meetings well in advance with state government officials and directed them to ensure that surplus paddy residue was fully managed.

The commission ordered them to intensify vigilance with the deployment of the “Parali Protection Force”, a squad mandated by the CAQM to prevent the burning of paddy stubble.

However, the concerns remain despite the government ensuring the distribution of 1.57 lakh crop residue management (CRM) machines among farmers since 2018-19 on subsidised rates.

Despite the machines, the farm fires have just picked up after a lull. On Sunday the state witnessed 67 farm fires — highest this season after another high of 33 cases on Saturday.

“The challenge is to ensure that farm fires do not increase suddenly though a spike in numbers cannot be ruled out due to the narrow window for the sowing of wheat,” says a senior Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB) official.

“Harvesting is yet to pick up in the Malwa belt, which typically records the highest number of farm fires. Last year, Sangrur in Malwa topped the state with 1,725 cases of 10,909. We are maintaining a close watch,” he says.

According to the PPCB data, the state had recorded 10,909 cases in 2024 against 36,663 in 2023. The state witnessed 83,002 farm fires in 2020, 71,304 in 2021 and 49,922 in 2022. Meanwhile, farm unions are opposing any action against farmers, including the registration of cases.

Farmers often prefer high-yield paddy varieties such as PUSA-44, PR-126 and others as these are bought at minimum support price (MSP) in Punjab markets. However, these varieties also produce significant stubble. Farmer unions have been demanding cash incentives to take care of the paddy residue.

Farmers have also rejected the proposal to make use of the bio-decomposer spray, which can clear stubble in 30 days. As the window between paddy harvesting and sowing of wheat shrinks, it’s not feasible to adopt this method.

“The government should pay us in cash to take care of the stubble. Everyone should understand that farmers and their families are the first and worst sufferers when smoke emanates from the fields and the health concerns for villagers are always more,” says a farmer leader.

An Agriculture Department official says next 10 days are crucial. “Figures are definitely much lower that previous years and we want to ensure that these remain in three digit figure,” the official adds.