₹1,146cr plan to stop stubble burning gets govt approval
NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on March 7 approved a massive plan to tackle crop burning in areas in and around Delhi and National Capital Region, which contributes heavily to particulate matter pollution.
The Rs 1,146.80 crore plan entails providing farmers with subsidies for machinery that will till the residue back into the soil. While individual farmers will get subsidies of 50%, farmers’ cooperatives, custom hiring centres, self-help groups and entrepreneurs will get 80% subsidy.
The funds will be channelled through farm machinery banks and will be made available to farmers to procure machinery to manage crop residue on site.
“This is a significant step,” said SN Tripathi, a professor at IIT Kanpur. “The idea is not to leave anything behind in the fields.” Tripathi and his group at IIT-K have shown that crop burning contributes significantly to air pollution in the Delhi-NCR, specially during winters. “We have seen direct linkages between crop burning and severe air pollution episodes in Delhi,” said Tripathi.
In the absence of viable alternatives, farmers resort to burning paddy crop residue, thereby generating large amounts of particulate matter that is carried mainly from Punjab and Haryana by winds to the Delhi-NCR. During winters, the particulate matter gets trapped close to the surface of the earth, contributing to poor air quality.
Last winter, a task force set up under Nripendra Misra, principal secretary to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, identified that the high cost of the machinery was an impediment to dispose off crop residue properly.
Also, lack of awareness about the advantages of recycling straw as mulch was seen as a major hindrance to the plan. Thus, a strategy has been devised to persuade farmers to adopt the technology.
Over 50,000 cases of crop burning were reported from Punjab and Haryana in the last Kharif season that ended in October. In the first half of November last year, Delhi experienced hazardous pollution levels.
In December 2017, the environment ministry approved a Rs 100 crore project to tackle crop burning in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. The project will receive funding under the National Adaptation Fund for Climate Change (NAFCC) and leverage about three times the approved amount from states and farmers.
The environment ministry also finalised a Comprehensive Action Plan (CAP) to tackle pollution in the Delhi-NCR. “Our plan has a different focus,” said CK Mishra, secretary, ministry of environment. “The agriculture ministry is the nodal ministry for this plan,” he added.