Recycling crop stubble is the simplest solution for Delhi’s annual smog problem
This article is authored by Shashi Kumar, co-founder & CEO, Akshayakalpa Organic.
Even as Delhi and the rest of India’s National Capital Region continues to be covered by thick smog, with Air Quality Index still in dangerous zones, we are yet to find a sustainable solution to this annual and largely man-made disaster. Official government data that throws light on the magnitude of this challenge is quite alarming. Every year, India’s farm sector has to contend with 500 million tonnes of post-harvest crop leftovers. An estimated three-fourth of this are used as fodder for cattle and as fuel for a wide range of commercial and household needs and around 92 million tonnes of the crop waste is burned in-situ, making it one of the biggest contributors to the annual smog problem.
According to environmental experts, at the peak of this problem, breathing in Delhi is equal to smoking 23-45 cigarettes daily. This datum alone should shock us into taking action on a war footing to find a solution for a challenge that goes all the way back to the 1980s. Several solutions have been put forth, some even tried with varying degrees of success and yet well into the second decade of the new millennium we are still scratching our heads. The root of the problem is an economic one. Cutting and moving the crop leftovers is labour intensive and costs money. On the other hand, burning costs next to nothing, or is it?
A report by IIT Bombay estimated the economic cost of Delhi’s annual smog problem to be around $11 billion in 2015. Nearly a decade since, it must be much higher today. An estimated 12,000 deaths in the national Capital are attributed to air pollution. The only solution that we can afford now is also the simplest and most effective one – cut and recycle the crop leftovers back into the soil, which is basically mulching. While this is a resource intensive solution, it delivers several wins at once. Recycling the stubbles conserves soil moisture, while preventing soil erosion as well. The carbon and other nutrient contents also improve considerably. When the mulch breakdown, they provide nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, essential ingredients for soil and crop health. Soil and crop-friendly earthworms also thrive here. And that is not all.
Mulching also helps in maintaining soil temperature at a consistent level that supports crop growth. Burning crop kills every living organism, microbes to earthworm, up to one centimeter of soil, thus severally damaging it and making the crops that grow on them vulnerable to diseases. Mulching has the exact opposite effect by providing an extra protection from pests and disease attacks.
Punjab and Haryana, where this problem originates are, by and large, agrarian states. Though the number of reported farm fire incidents in Punjab for instance have dropped consistently since 2020, from around 77,000 cases to around 37,000 in 2023, the severity of the outcome has not really diminished. According to one survey, nine out of every 10 farmers are aware of the problem in burning their crops. But to bring about a behavioral change on a large population that is also economically vulnerable, will need concerted and consistent efforts to educate them both about the negative outcome of burning and the advantages in mulching. Educating farmers as an extension service that also teaches them the proper way to cut and mulch crop leftovers is the only way we can fix this problem. And this has to be done season after season, year after year until we can report zero crop burning incidents in these two states. It will not be easy, but the outcomes will definitely make it worth the effort.
For more than a decade our team of extension officers have been educating and supporting farmers in this part of the world to convert to organic agriculture. After thousands of interactions, we have today around 1,500 organic dairy farmers in our network, covering 10,000 acres of farmland across Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and 10,000 cows that live off what we produce on them. We don’t have single instance of crop burning and farmers earn lot more than what they did before turning to organic farming. While the situation of farmers in Punjab and Haryana and their peers in southern Karnataka may not be the same, the larger point is the impact of effective farmers’ education. Burning the crop not only pollutes the air, but also makes their soil less productive, while mulching improves soil quality and helps them grow and earn more. This is a message no farmer is going to turn away from.
This article is authored by Shashi Kumar, co-founder & CEO, Akshayakalpa Organic.
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