Why burn thy farm?

Ain't there no fire escape from the Stubble Burning issue?

Oct 30, 2020

For the uninitiated, here’s the context — for over a decade, farmers in our northern states, primarily in the Punjab-Haryana-UP belt, have been burning millions of tons of crop residues in their fields. And this’s turning worrisome, year after year!

Well, I know this sounds foolhardy… after all, how can a farmer set fire in his own farmland? Are the pollution levels not alarming already? Is COVID over yet? It’s bizarre, they must have gone nuts, you think? You know what that's a winter thing in India when farmers become the scapegoat of all such allegations! But wait, why would they do that unless their arms are twisted, hmm? Well guys, there’s so much more to the story than you probably know…

What leads us here?

Well, you can’t imagine an Indian standard diet without rice and wheat. Being of essence to our zero-hunger mission (of sorts), there are good reasons why both these crops occupy a lion’s share in our farm produce. However, there’s an inherent problem brewing within for our farmers. Anyway we need to go back to square one to understand the scene.

Recall high school biology/geography — Rice is a kharif crop, meaning it’s sown in summer and harvested in winter; whereas Wheat is a rabi crop which is sown during winters and harvested in the summer. Now, imagine you’re a farmer. Winter comes and you reap your paddy (rice). But before sowing wheat, you’ve to harvest the field and make it ready. You have got to clear the field of all paddy residues. You hire machines called Combines for the purpose of cleaning and separating the grains. But the problem is these machines don’t cut close enough to the ground (so un-Gillette ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) Thus, the paddy crop wastes (Stubble) are anyway left-over in the field, which seem to be of no use to you. And when time and costs aren’t your best pal, what’s easier than burning them down, yeah?!

For instance, consider time as a constraint. To obtain maximum yield, you need to let wheat grow for at least 140-150 days. Thus, for wheat to be ready by the crucial mid-April, you must sow it latest by mid-November. This is critical in the northern states because India relies on them for wheat and the urgency is quite high in those areas. Add to this the complications of Punjab’s water-saving laws which further delay the harvesting of rice. Ergo, you don’t have much of a breathing space between harvesting rice and sowing wheat! So, you’ve got to shake a leg in doing all groundwork of readying the field. And the obvious fast and furious thing to do is burn’em all, isn’t it?

And it’s not like you don’t have options. It’s just that they aren’t economically feasible. There is this Turbo Happy Seeder (THS) machine which fairly serves the purpose. But that would cost you more than a Lakh. This machine has to be mounted on a 60-hp tractor which most farmers can’t afford to possess and thus, the arrangement becomes uneconomic! Any other way of removing would require high labour costs or other expenses which, as reported, would only add to the financial stress of farmers. And as one canny farmer states — “If I can clear my farm using a one-rupee matchbox, why will I spend thousands?” You get that?

And this burning of stubble brings very dangerous consequences, especially when the country is already struggling to fight the pandemic. If you’re aware, one of the reasons why our national capital makes headlines on and off is its pollution and worsening air quality. Now this stubble burning, which is reported to be 67% higher than last year’s, is fueling the pollution smog and threatening the already stretched health conditions of Delhi and its neighbouring regions. As the Reuters notes — “Average air pollution this month hit its worst in two years after farmers made an early start on burning crop stubble left in their fields after harvests.” and which is already hinting “ ‘severe’ pollution that authorities say can affect healthy people and seriously harm any who are already ill.” Ouch!!

Indeed, we can’t afford to put our health at stake while COVID is around the corner, and something has to be done about this.

Ain’t there no Fire Escape?

You’d be prompted to think if farmers could use these crop residues for alternate purposes, probably they won’t burn it. Indeed, traditionally, crop residues had a lot of benefits like making beds for cattle, roof-covering, etc. Now, it could be used in cultivation of mushroom or to produce biomass and generate power. But the problem isn’t finding alternatives to paddy straw, as there are many. The real issue is who cuts and collects the crop residues and takes the responsibility of transporting them? As such, the farmers have no incentive to take all this pain!

The Government has also made an attempt to penalize and discourage farmers from stubble burning a few years ago, but that too didn’t work!

So, the bottom line is to meet the urgency, the Government could subsidize machines and facilities for the farmers. Easy and economic availability is of the essence. Or procure these residues from them, and they’ve no an issue.

You could take it as a classical problem of Behavioral Economics. As one report suggests, nudging farmers that others aren't burning their fields, or that not burning fields can prevent health issues and thus lead to savings in medical expenses, can actually work in reducing stubble burning.

However, we need to address the elephant in the room. If paddy residue is the problem child, won’t reducing paddy cultivation reduce these waste too? But given that rice and wheat cultivation is lucrative, how do you ask farmers to go for other crops? Well, give them incentives. If and only if cultivation of other crops, say maize, looks promising, you can entice atleast some farmers to switch. And the impact has to be made visible, like if the rice in mid-day meals in schools could be replaced by millets or other grains, farmers will acknowledge the fact and may be, go for a change in their cultivation pattern.

But enter the present scenario where the Government (evidently) offers MSP (Minimum Support Price) for only rice and wheat, and add to that all the farm bills’ protests, and now you know why making farmers switch to other crops will be a really hard-knock!

Anyway, the Government has to bell the cat. And it’ll, hopefully so…

So, hey guys, hope I could help you make sense of the entire scene around stubble burning. If you know someone who hasn’t been able to figure out why it matters, please share this article.

I’d also love to hear your views on the same.

Gen Z's Words

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