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Originally Posted by roy_libran
It is a much larger issue from what I understand and the farmers currently do not seem to have any option other than burning the fields.
There are some solutions presented, but they will take time to adopt and spread.
In the meanwhile, we choke and the politicos play ping pong. |
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Originally Posted by outofthebox Please educate us then. I'm not a farmer but as far as I know, stubble burning is not a part of the farming process in any country, or even in other parts of our own country.
Secondly, when it is clearly known to one and all that the a significant population is in grave danger because of this practise, then continuing with it for years without a care, or even supporting it, is nothing short of anarchy. |
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Originally Posted by Nav-i-gator A simple solution is to plough back the crop stubble into the field. It acts as a a natural manure too. I don't know why farmers resort to burning the crop remains. In nirth India at least, all field preparations and ploughing is mechanised now, so it is not difficult as well. |
Hi. I own and manage a large farm not too far from Delhi. I'd like to try and explain the situation a bit.
There are two types of rice crop being planted. The PR variety which the government procures for a guaranteed msp, it is less susceptible to a lot of diseases, has a higher yield, and is simpler to grow.
The other one is the longer, "basmati" variety which is procured by rice mills, for which the price isn't fixed, and depends on open market forces, there's a bidding, etc. This variety is more susceptible to diseases, has a lower yield, needs more monitoring, and in the last couple of years, has provided less income for farmers because the prices had plummeted. This is also a higher risk variety because the final sale price is not known.
The crop residue left over from the basmati varieties is sold to nearby small dairy owners as that can be used as fodder for their cattle; this essentially makes the harvest process free.
The crop residue left over by PR variety isn't fit for consumption. It is dry, properly dry, and susceptible to getting lit even by a throw away cigarette or match. It is this residue that is burnt. It isn't plough-able, gets stuck in the tillage machines, does not comply. Even if you do multiple runs, and make the field passable for the next crop by trying to plough this residue into the ground, it would take about ten times the number of tillage runs and the field would need to be watered an extra time (I have tried it myself). That's a very high cost per acre on fuel and eats into margins significantly. Also, this much tillage contributes to soil erosion and isn't good for the top soil. It also wastes about 50000L of fresh water at minimum.
Knowing all of the above, farmers have a few options:
1. Avoid PR altogether: kind of unviable as there's higher risk in other varieties, higher expense, more complexity but the biggest issue is the sale price might end up being too low, as has been happening for the last couple of years.
2. Pick up all the straw leftover after harvesting of PR by hand, collect it in a place, bury it somewhere, as it can't be stored in its current form because it is highly susceptible to being lit.
3. Burn the residue and have the field ready to plough for the next crop in about 15 mins.
I chose option 2 when I took over the farm a few years ago, even at the expense of labour, time and extremely high ridicule of everyone around, haha. I chose it on principle, and pollution or other causes at the time hadn't even entered my mind.
I have my own people working on the farm for a salary and in that way, they have to listen to the kind of work I want them to do. Most large farm owners work on labour share, and they don't enjoy that kind of control. The rest are marginal owners and they don't have the bandwidth to do this.
This time, a few farmers were fined when they were caught burning the residue, and so, what did the other farmers do? They started burning during night time when none of the inspecting officers were around.
This is what it is, and if you think you can reason with a farmer who fights for survival everyday to give more of his time, money, and effort for others to be able to breathe better, at best they will tell you, respectfully, to go to hell.