Punjab gears up to tackle stubble burning

Aman Sood

Patiala, September 13

Farm fires, which usually start after paddy harvesting in the last week of September, are likely to begin by the middle of this month because the crop was sown a week before the official date.

This season, paddy was sown on 32 lakh hectares, from which over 22 million tonnes of straw is expected to be generated. Punjab expects to utilise 16 million tonnes of paddy straw this year, though there will be challenges in ensuring that.

49,900 incidents Reported last year

• The state reported 52,991 incidents of fire fire in 2019, which increased to 76,590 in 2020 — a rise of 44.5 per cent
• In 2021, the number was 71,304 in spite of spending crores on awareness drives. In 2022, Punjab saw only 49,900 farm fires

In 2013, the National Green Tribunal had prohibited the burning of paddy straw, saying: “The guilty will be liable to pay an environmental compensation ranging from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000 per incident.” Farmers, however, continue to burn stubble in the absence of any strict action.

Meanwhile, after the harvest, over 10,000 officers will be in the field to curb stubble burning, with deputy commissioners heading various committees to tackle the issue of farm fires, which lead to air and soil pollution. Between 2018 and 2022, the Centre has provided Rs 1,370 crore to Punjab as subsidy for buying equipment to check the menace.

The Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), along with the Agriculture Department, will start monitoring the air quality from September 15 though farm fire incidents rise by mid-October and continue through November.

PPCB Chairman Adarsh Pal Vig said the department had held awareness seminars for farmers and they were hopeful that farm fires incidents would reduce considerably this season. “We have made arrangements to store paddy straw at various places and use it for different purposes to encourage farmers not to set their fields on fire,” he said.

Experts say paddy harvesting starts early in the Majha area, comprising Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts. “Despite floods and resowing of paddy in certain pockets, we are expecting a bumper crop. If the government fails to rein in the farm fire menace in the initial days, it will be difficult to do so later,” said agriculture officials.

Farmers have already rejected the proposal to make use of the bio-decomposer spray which can clear stubble in about 30 days. As the window between paddy harvest and sowing of wheat crop is shorter than this, it is not feasible to use this method. “When you can clear your fields with a single matchstick, there is no need to put an additional burden on machines and put extra efforts on managing stubble,” say farmers.

Farmers claim that due to a short window between paddy harvesting and sowing of wheat, we have no option but to resort to farm fires. “If we sow wheat without removing straw, the rabi crop gets infested with pests and weeds,” they say.

Officials of the Agriculture Department said they would create more awareness this time and “low yield cannot be linked to in-situ management of crop residue”.