Smoke Signals

Context: Farm fires are likely to exacerbate this year, and there is a need for advance planning to cope with farm fires in the forthcoming winter.

Rise in farm fires:

• According to the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) satellite imagery data, the number of field fires between April 1 and May 16 spurted by around 50% in Punjab and almost doubled in Haryana over last year’s corresponding period.
• Reasons for the surge:
  • As the consequence of the government’s acceptance of the farmers’ demand to decriminalise crop burning.
  • The Centre is reported to have curtailed the powers of the newly constituted Air Quality Management Commission for the NCR and Adjoining Areas.
  • The root cause of the winter farm fires is the meagre time gap between Kharif harvesting and rabi sowing, so farmers tend to go in for relatively cheap means to remove the remnants of the previous crop.

Implications of farm fires:

• Rise in air pollution in the NCR region, especially during the winter months.
• A recent global study has reckoned that around 30% of the Covid-19 deaths have air pollution as a related factor.

Measures taken: Since issue of farm fires is basically an economic issue that requires an economically feasible solution. A number of such steps have been taken in the past:

• Hastening the in situ decomposition of crop leftovers to prepare manure by using bio-decomposers like the one developed by the New Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (Pusa institute);
• Managing leftovers through mechanical devices like happy seeder, rotavator, straw cutters, and bailers.
• NTPC is using agricultural biomass as fuel at its power plant in Dadri and paying for this farm waste.
• Agricultural biomass can even be converted into pulp to make fancy paper, cardboards, and material for handicraft and decorative items.

Way Forward: While the measures are already present, their implementation requires advance and innovative planning.

• Small- and medium-scale industries, farmers’ producer companies, and other start-ups can be involved in this task.