In power in both Punjab and Delhi, can AAP stub farm fires this winter?

Farmers are unconvinced about financial incentives; measures announced in previous years have had little impact

As the stubble burning season approaches, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is now in power in both Delhi and Punjab, is racing against time to ensure that this winter is free of smog in the National Capital Region (NCR) and surrounding states.

In recent weeks, the AAP has tried to offer doles to farmers ahead of the paddy harvesting season, including the recently announced financial incentive of Rs 2,500 per acre for farmers to dissuade them from burning stubble. The Punjab government said the proposal has been sent to the central and Delhi governments, and Punjab and the Centre should bear the cost.

Farmers unconvinced

But if farmers are to be believed, this would hardly work and is likely to fail in addressing the issue, just like many such solutions in the past.

Sukhdev Singh Kokri Kalan, Punjab general secretary of Bhartiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan), said he is not confident that the Centre will contribute to the financial incentive proposed by the AAP government, but even if it does, the amount is too low. “The Centre will not give anything to farmers. Even if the AAP governments give Rs 2,500, that is less than half of the Rs 6,000 that farmers require to decompose stubble,” Kalan said.

Some farmer union leaders also pointed out that the incentive is nothing new, as the National Green Tribunal had ordered in 2015 has said that the government should provide monetary aid to farmers.

“The promises made by [Delhi Chief Minister Arvind] Kejriwal are only on paper. They have not paid the compensation already approved to farmers whose wheat crop was destroyed last season. For land below 2 acres, every farmer should get decomposer machinery at Rs 5,000. But nobody is getting it. The cost of [such] machinery has doubled. A mulcher now costs over Rs 2 lakh,” said Balbir Singh Rajewal, founder of Bharatiya Kisan Union (Rajewal) and member of Sanyukt Samaj Morcha.

Estimates by the Commission of Air Quality Management (CAQM) indicate that stubble burning contributes up to 15 per cent of air pollution on an average in Delhi during the post-monsoon and winter periods. But daily contribution may vary from 4 per cent to more than 35 per cent, depending on the direction and speed of wind.

In a first, the Centre in October 2020 brought a new Ordinance to tackle air pollution in Delhi-NCR. Under this, the Centre formed a legislative commission for air pollution under the Environment Protection Act (EPA), 1986, which will monitor air pollution in Delhi NCR.

Bio-decomposers

The commission in its latest report has outlined several steps that can be taken to avert the crisis this winter. This included bio-decomposers, sale of stubble to thermal power units for use as fuel with coal and creation of a biomass supply chain.

State-owned NTPC was one of the foremost thermal power producers to come forward to buy bio-pellets made from crop residue. However, the lack of an organised market and bio-pellet makers has prevented large-scale adoption of this plan.

Kalan said no PSUs have started purchasing stubble from farmers.

Besides, the success of bio-decomposers is up for debate. Last year, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) claimed it has covered significant ground under its project of bio-decomposition in the five states. In Delhi, they have covered 4,000 hectares, 100,000 hectares in Haryana, and 400,000 hectares UP of farm land with bio-decomposers. This is against the targeted 1-million-acre coverage of bio decomposers laid down by CAQM.

However, farmers are still not keen on it, given the time it takes for decomposition, especially those with large land holdings. A decomposer typically takes 60 days and by then it’s time for the next sowing.

Last year, the Imperial Agriculture Research Institute launched a pilot of the PUSA decomposer — 300 grams of this spray is enough to decompose 1 acre of stubble to manure. Around 210,000 hectares of land was identified by the company to conduct trials. Unlike other decomposers, this one did its job in 30 days. But the take-off has been limited beyond the pilot.

Paddy acreage decline

The only ray of hope this year could be that paddy cultivation is down. As compared to previous years, area sown under paddy, the biggest food grains grown during the kharif season was almost 13.30 per cent less, as on July 29 due to poor rains in big growing states of UP, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal.

Sources said trade and market players have already started factoring in at least 10 million tonnes (MT) drop in production in rice in the kharif season as compared to last year, due to delayed sowing. Last year, India produced over 111 MT of rice in the kharif season.

However, the drop in acreage is largely in the eastern states of Bihar, West Bengal, and Jharkhand, where stubble generation is minimal as crops are mostly manually harvested. In UP, which is India’s biggest paddy growing state, the total acreage is around 0.66 million hectares less than last year till end of July. In total, paddy is sown in around 5.8 million hectares of land each year.

In Punjab, which is the biggest generator of paddy stubble, the crop has been sown in around 3.03 million hectares, which is the same as last year, while in Haryana, around 1.2 million hectares land has been brought under paddy cultivation this kharif, which is slightly less than last year.

As a result, this winter could be smoggy too. For the AAP, this will be a litmus test.

Crop residue burning incidents

State	Jan- 22	Feb- 22	Mar- 22	Apr- 22	May- 22	Jun- 22	Jul- 22	Aug- 22 (up to 03)
Haryana	56	162	112	2313	980	47	7	0
Punjab	59	311	265	4989	10347	502	26	0
Rajasthan	3	3	19	622	1057	76	7	0
Uttarakhand	10	38	47	189	81	1	3	0
	Last year
State	Sept- 21	Oct- 21	Nov- 21	Dec- 21
Haryana	26	4340	6381	298
Punjab	234	15439	69609	306
Rajasthan	12	126	1189	10
Uttarakhand	3	218	293	74
Source: IARI - CREAMS Portal