Crop fires didn’t reduce in 2018

NASA DATA Experts said the government’s intervention in recent years to reduce stubble burning may not be yielding the desired results

new analysis of satellite data suggests there was virtually no decline in the number of farm fires last year compared to 2017, suggesting efforts by the government to help farmers manage crop residue may have not led to desired results.

In 2018, the Union government launched a ₹1,150-crore plan to subsidise machines that can reduce stubble left behind after paddy cultivation so that farmers do not burn the remnants. The practice of setting farmlands on fire has been linked to an air pollution crisis that has been recurring every winter in recent years.

According to Hiren Jethva, research scientist, Universities Space Research Association at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, satellite analysis suggests there were 64,410 fires last year in Punjab and Haryana compared to 64,553 fires in 2017. The numbers, however, were significantly lower compared to 2016 when there were 93,735 fires detected.

“There might be some reduction in crop burning area, but the fire activity in 2017 and 2018 detected from the satellite is still significant. The reduction in crop fires from 2016 to 2017-2018 was due to proportionate reduction in crop amounts, thereby residue,” Jethva told HT over email. A larger study based on this analysis will be published soon.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) recently said there was a 50% reduction in agricultural area where crop residue burning takes place every October in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi based on satellite data collected by them.

Authorities are on vigil for this year, with the practice yet to start since harvesting is yet to be completed. According to members of farmer unions, a late onset and withdrawal of monsoon has forced them to begin harvesting only and that leaves them with little time for completing sowing for winter crops that needs to be completed by mid-November. The shorter window could compel many farmers to use burning as a method to clear fields, Harinder Singh Lakhowal, general secretary of the Bharatiya Kisan Union in Punjab, said on Thursday.

According to Jethva’s analysis, the vegetation index (a measure for greenness which can indicate crop or vegetation cover) for September indicates large amount of crop production (estimated above 12 million tons). “Given its historical relationship with fire activity translates in to (over) 16,000 fire counts from MODIS (satellite imagery) 1-km detection perspective. The frequency of VIIRS (satellite imagery) fire counts, owing to its ability to detect fires at higher resolution, is estimated to be approximately five times that of MODIS, so this factor translates into>80,000 fire incidences from VIIRS perspective over Punjab and Haryana,” Jethva added. But this forecast will apply only if there are no interventions made to reduce crop fires.

Trilochan Mohapatra, ICAR director general, said the anomaly with NASA data could be because the NASA scientist has also counted lower intensity fires in Punjab and Haryana. “We don’t know what they have captured. Is it fires at day or night? We have used data from 7 satellites which shows number of fire intensity events and area burnt are reducing. Last year 56,000 machines were made available for stubble management. This year 54,000 machines will be available,” said Mohapatra.

ICAR has also said that there has also been around 15% reduction in the number of crop residue burning events since 2017. In Punjab and Haryana, about 1.25 million ha out of 4 million ha was covered by technology to manage residue in just one paddy harvest season in 2018, with 7,960 custom hiring centres giving machines to farmers on hire. Farmers can hire happy-seeder or other machinery at ₹1,200 to ₹1,500 per acre and are entitled to a 50% subsidy from the centre to buy the machine in 2019.

Farmers say enlisting only certain machinery manufacturers for the Centre’s subsidy is a problem. “We believe that the scheme was developed only to benefit certain firms. The same machine if bought from other manufacturers which are not authorised by the government, are cheaper. Why should farmers opt for the subsidy? Instead government should give a direct subsidy to farmers to buy whichever machinery they want. Last year only 5,500 farmers got subsidy in Punjab. There was only one machine available for every four to five villages. We have a very short window to harvest paddy and sow wheat so there is no time to arrange for machinery,” Lakhowal said on Friday.

A farmer leader in Haryana too said that machines were adequate in number. “There are very few machines this year. The scheme hasn’t been successful also because farmers have to pay rent for it of ₹3,500 to 4000 per acre. Stubble fires have already started and are likely to increase,” said Rattan Mann, BKU Haryana President.