{"id":33769,"date":"2022-12-05T02:42:02","date_gmt":"2022-12-04T21:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=33769"},"modified":"2025-04-20T01:26:50","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T19:56:50","slug":"stubble-burning-came-down-315-from-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/stubble-burning-came-down-315-from-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Stubble Burning Came Down 31.5% from Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Stubble Burning \u2013 Reasons for its prevalence, Major States practicing it, Impact of stubble burning, efforts to address the issue, suggestions<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Stubble burning in Delhi\u2019s neighbouring states has dropped by 31. 5% this harvest season compared with last year, according to the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM).\n<ul>\n<li>The Commission was set up for Air Quality Management in <u>National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas<\/u> for better co-ordination, research, identification and resolution of problems surrounding the air quality index.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why Farmers opt for stubble burning?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rice and wheat<\/strong> straws left in the field, after combine harvesting, are generally burnt by the farmers to <u>facilitate seed bed preparation and seeding<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>Farmers find this method as quick and cheap compared to other practices for crop residue management.<\/li>\n<li>Since input costs of farming is going up day by day, farmers are not willing to further invest in equipments useful for crop residue management.\n<ul>\n<li>Happy Seeder (a tractor-operated machine for in-situ management of paddy stubble) continues to be an expensive method for majority of farmers<strong>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the areas where stubble burning practice is rampant?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Burning of agricultural residue is done on a large-scale basis in states such as <u>Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and National Capital Region of Delhi<\/u>.<\/li>\n<li>This is prevalent in other states too. This includes: Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the impacts of stubble burning?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Environmental Pollution<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Agriculture fires are a major contributor to air pollution in north India in October-November.<\/li>\n<li>Pollutants from these fires spread across the region, triggering smog and extreme air quality situations.<\/li>\n<li>An increase in the concentration of particulate matter (PM) 2.5 and PM 10 in the atmosphere is observed in these months.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Harmful to the health of soil<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Burning of crop residues removes huge amount of nutrient and organic carbon content from the soil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What are the steps taken by the government to tackle stubble burning?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Taken by Centre<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>A Central Sector Scheme on \u2018<u>Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delh<\/u>i was approved.<\/li>\n<li>Farmers are being provided 50 percent of the cost of machinery\/equipment as financial assistance for the purchase of such machinery.<\/li>\n<li>The central government has released Rs 3,062 crore to the governments of Punjab, Delhi and states in NCR during the five-year period from 2018 to 2023 towards effective management of stubble.<\/li>\n<li>Profit from the left-over biomass is shared with farmers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pusa Decomposer by Indian Agricultural research Institute (IARI)<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Pusa decomposer is a bio-enzyme developed by IARI to decompose crop residue.<\/li>\n<li>It decomposes stubble within 20-25 days after spraying and turn it into manure, improving the soil quality.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Taken by State Governments and Other agencies<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>States governments and other agencies are sensitizing farmers on healthier practices.<\/li>\n<li>In July 2022, the Punjab government had proposed to provide a cash incentive of Rs 2,500 per acre to farmers for not burning stubble.<\/li>\n<li>It also decided to provide non-fiscal incentives to these industries in terms of availability of Panchayat land for storage of paddy straw with lease agreement upto 33 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>News Summary<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The fire count from stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and the NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan has reduced this year compared to 2021.<\/li>\n<li>The data included paddy crop residue burning events in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and the NCR districts of UP and Rajasthan between Sept 15 and Nov 30.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Key highlights<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Statistics for stubble burning<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Haryana saw the maximum reduction at 47. 6%, followed by Punjab at 30%.<\/li>\n<li>The biggest drop in Haryana was reported from Fatehabad district while in Punjab, the sharpest dip was in Ludhiana.<\/li>\n<li>The NCR districts of UP, Rajasthan and Delhi recorded a 19. 3% drop in farm fires.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Reasons behind the positive result this year<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Optimum use of <u>crop residue management machines<\/u> for in-situ management of stubble;<\/li>\n<li>A significant increase in ex-situ application of stubble, like using it for <u>co-firing in thermal power plants and industrial boilers or generation bio-ethanol production<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/KLMZG6M_c7S-8yuvvtBxzUpI5noAwcjqOwhpeo1GkI7JTcqYw-X4vSziQUiM_l8RxV9_4IESKPLYjsdr35X_PpcWSOL4dAz1V5ggGeyhccF99k7apjJjQYBW0VdY032fb08uXbdUX8_7Oj0ghhQ2FQ\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Image Caption: Stubble burning statistics<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q1) What are some alternatives to crop burning?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Instead of burning the stubble, it can be used in different ways like cattle feed, compost manure, roofing in rural areas, biomass energy, mushroom cultivation, packing materials, fuel, paper, bio-ethanol and industrial production, etc.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q2) Which gases are released by stubble burning?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Stubble burning is a significant source of carbon dioxide (CO<sub>2<\/sub>), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NO<sub>x<\/sub>) and hydrocarbons (HC)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stubble burning in Delhi\u2019s neighbouring states has dropped by 31. 5% says Commission for Air Quality Management<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":33770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}