The period of October to December witnesses the paddy sowing and harvesting season in northern region of India, which needs an agricultural waste clearance. Farmers in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab burn their stubble for this purpose. This smoke reduces visibility and damages the lungs. It brings about many respiratory problems to people living in nearby areas.
This change in lifestyle once was necessary to win over nature and adapt to it. However, many questions arise nowadays whether it is absolutely essential for the sustainable progress of mankind or it has outlived its own utility as humanity can come up with an alternative to the old methods of stubble burning? Is the current crisis with air pollution and Coronavirus a pinch from the hard realities of life that we are dangerously headed toward a way too different direction?
The stubble though is of no use to the farmers. To protect themselves from crop loss, farmers have to take this precautionary step of leaving the stubble as it is on the field. While burning this stubble, smoke emanates and causes serious environmental pollution.
The simple reason is linked with the economics of farming. There’s a price difference in machinery used for disposing of the crop residue and stubble burning; the machinery way is prohibitively expensive. Another factor that contributes to farmers resorting to this measure is that many don’t own proper land on which they can safely dispose of the stubble. The idea of selling this residue wasn’t always out of question, but when nobody came forward to purchase it because its value was very low and thus, farmers resorted to burning it.
Stubble burning is a problem that has been prevalent in a number of states in India. A lot of farmers burn the leftover stubble that they have after the harvest. There are really no benefits for stubble burning and only negative effects for the environment.
Air pollution is caused by the traditional practice of stubble burning. As per the World Health Organization (WHO), air pollution is considered to be the leading cause of death in India.
Stubble burning is a common practice in Indian farming. The process of stubble burning destroys and damages the health of the soil, leading to increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and hence disturbing the natural balance of things on our planet.
Stubble burning, especially during the winter months, not only spoils the air quality, but also reduces soil fertility in the long run. Thus, an alternate approach to stubble burning needs to be adopted by farmers. Here, both farmers and the government need to explore the Chhattisgarh Model of agriculture.
The Chhattisgarh model is an innovative experiment that has been undertaken by the Chhattisgarh government which involves the setting up of gauthans. These are centers where the stubble is collected and dried prior to burning it in a more environment-friendly way. This is creating a lot of buzz in the media because of the innovative approach, which is turning out to be successful so far.
A gauthan is a dedicated five-acre plot, held in common by each village, where all the unused stubble or parali is collected through parali daan (people’s donations) and is converted into organic fertiliser by mixing with cow dung and a few natural enzymes.
Organic farming is the foundation for Valluru’s success. It began with the decision to stop using chemical fertilizers. Instead, they adopted a traditional method of farming where they grow crops using organic fertilizer and natural methods of weed management. But most importantly, the community was indoctrinated that unless stubble burning is stopped they will continue to burn their fields without yield despite practicing organic farming.