{"id":53967,"date":"2019-11-12T17:48:06","date_gmt":"2019-11-12T12:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogadmin.forumias.com\/?page_id=53967"},"modified":"2019-11-12T17:48:15","modified_gmt":"2019-11-12T12:18:15","slug":"answered-paddy-stubble-burning-in-states-neighbouring-delhi-is-being-seen-as-one-of-the-reasons-for-the-smog-in-the-national-capital-change-to-a-less-water-guzzling-crop-will-help-address","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/answered-paddy-stubble-burning-in-states-neighbouring-delhi-is-being-seen-as-one-of-the-reasons-for-the-smog-in-the-national-capital-change-to-a-less-water-guzzling-crop-will-help-address\/","title":{"rendered":"[Answered] \u201cPaddy stubble burning in states neighbouring Delhi, is being seen as one of the reasons for the smog in the national capital. Change to a less water-guzzling crop will help address stubble burning.\u201d Do you agree?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Demand of the question<\/strong>
Introduction. <\/strong>Contextual Introduction.
Body. <\/strong>How stubble burning lead to air pollution? How change to a less water-guzzling crop is important to stop stubble burning?
Conclusion. <\/strong>Way forward. <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n

Stubble burning is a post-harvest practice used to clear fields of paddy crop residue by burning them. This practice mostly carried out in Punjab, Haryana and UP contributes solely to the grave winter pollution in the national capital. For farmers, burning the residue becomes the easiest way of disposing it owing to lack of time, equipments and awareness. But this add up to the already poor air quality in India and is one of the cause of air pollution in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How stubble burning lead to air\npollution?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Stubble burning, results in\nemission of harmful gases such as carbon monoxide, N2O, NO2, SO2, CH4 along\nwith particulate matter and hydrocarbons. Each tonne of crop residue on burning\nreleases around 3kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of CO, 1,460 kg of CO2, 199kg\nof ash and 2kg of SO2.<\/li>
  2. Also, Crop residue fires in Punjab\nand Haryana are enhancing concentrations of toxic gases like benzene and\ntoluene, according to research from Indian Institute of Science Education and\nResearch (IISER).<\/li>
  3. Further, Stubble burning releases\ntoxic pollutants like Volatile organic compound (VOC) in air. Also, it leads to\nspike in Particulate Matter levels, contributing between 12 and 60% of PM\nconcentrations.<\/li>
  4. Clouds of ash and smoke containing\nthese harmful pollutants from stubble burning travel more than 1000 kms aided\nby the Westerly winds coming from the Mediterranean region and create an\nobstinate and non-clearing clouds.<\/li>
  5. Smog formed of the smoke increase\nthe levels of pollutants by manifolds in the air leading to poor visibility and\ncausing accidents.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    How change to a less water-guzzling crop is\nimportant to stop stubble burning?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    1. First, paddy consumes a lot of\nwater- 5,000 litres to produce just a kilogram in north India. Crops like rice\nand sugarcane are water-guzzlers. Since India produces more rice than it\nconsumes, it exports a lot of rice. Thus, it also exports a lot of groundwater.<\/li>
    2. The rice stubble is one of the\ncause of today\u2019s air pollution. The states of Punjab and Haryana decreed a few\nyears ago that farmers cannot sow rice until just before the rains. It has\nmeant that farmers have very little time to harvest rice and sow the next crop,\nwheat, in time for the brief winter rains. The stubble they leave behind,\nthough, is rooted in the ground. It takes a lot less time and money to simply\nburn it than have it removed manually, or even using a machine.<\/li>
    3. This happens at a time when the\nmonsoon is receding from northern India, leaving behind depressed air that\ntraps the pollutants. This result in smog overwhelming the region, including\ncities like Delhi, Meerut, Mathura, and Agra.<\/li>
    4. Subsidising the machines that can\nremove the stubble or creating a demand for the stubble in the form of biogas\nplants are solutions that haven\u2019t yet scaled up.<\/li>
    5. The long-term plan has to be to\nmake fewer farmers grow rice and wheat. Millets, maize, pulses, some fruits,\nand some indigenous varieties of rice consume less water, and can help space\nout the sowing and harvesting season for many farmers. The policy needed for\nthis is crop diversification. Delhi can prevent its annual health catastrophe\nby creating markets for these nutritious millets. <\/li>
    6. Another reason is the farming\neconomy. Farmers complain their input costs are too high. Farmers are ready to\nshift to different crops provided their incomes, and their stability, don\u2019t\nchange. If the government buys more of other crops at fixed prices and in large\nquantities, working with farmers to make sure they continue to earn profits,\ncrop diversification would have better chances.<\/li>
    7. At present, the window for paddy\nharvesting is around 20-25 days, putting pressure on farmers to get rid of the\ncrop residue and prepare the land for sowing wheat. Since Punjab has low\ngroundwater levels and paddy being a water-guzzling crop, it is better to shift\nfrom paddy cultivation and grow more water-efficient crops like oilseeds and\nmaize. <\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      The 2014 national policy envisages adoption of technical measures, including diversified uses of crop residue, capacity building and training along with formulation of suitable legislation, to deal with the issue of disposing of stubble. Unless Financial assistance is to be provided by the Centre for boosting farm mechanisation, it is difficult to completely stop stubble burning. States needs to make alternative arrangements for consumption of paddy straw into the soil as per the directions of the NGT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Demand of the question Introduction. Contextual Introduction. Body. How stubble burning lead to air pollution? How change to a less water-guzzling crop is important to stop stubble burning? Conclusion. Way forward. Stubble burning is a post-harvest practice used to clear fields of paddy crop residue by burning them. This practice mostly carried out in Punjab,… Continue reading [Answered] \u201cPaddy stubble burning in states neighbouring Delhi, is being seen as one of the reasons for the smog in the national capital. Change to a less water-guzzling crop will help address stubble burning.\u201d Do you agree?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":49132,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-53967","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53967","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/53967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}