{"id":37854,"date":"2023-10-24T08:29:41","date_gmt":"2023-10-24T02:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=37854"},"modified":"2026-01-10T18:15:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T12:45:39","slug":"stubble-burning-upsc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/stubble-burning-upsc\/","title":{"rendered":"Stubble burning &#8211; Punjab breathes easy as farm fires down by half"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in news?<\/li>\n<li>Stubble Burning<\/li>\n<li>Why Farmers opt for Stubble Burning?<\/li>\n<li>Areas where stubble burning is rampant<\/li>\n<li>Impact Of Agriculture Fire<\/li>\n<li>Steps Taken by the government to tackle this issue<\/li>\n<li>News Summary: Stubble burning &#8211; Punjab breathes easy as farm fires down by half<\/li>\n<li>Steps taken by Punjab Govt.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in news?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Punjab is breathing easy this year having recorded an over 50 per cent decrease in paddy stubble fires in the ongoing harvesting season as compared to last year.<\/li>\n<li>From September 15 till October 22, Punjab had reported 1,794 farm fires as against 3,696 such incidents recorded last year.\n<ul>\n<li>The state had reported more than 4,300 such cases in 2021.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The government&#8217;s plan was to reduce paddy stubble burning by over 50% compared to 2022, and to eliminate farm fires in six districts of Punjab.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why Farmers opt for Stubble Burning?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Rice and wheat 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.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Areas where this practice is rampant<\/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<h2>Impact Of Agriculture Fire<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Environmental Pollution\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>Harmful to the health of soil\n<ul>\n<li>Burning of crop residues removes huge amount of nutrient from the soil.<\/li>\n<li>Residue burning has further reduced soils\u2019 organic carbon content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Steps Taken by the government to tackle this issue<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Taken by Centre\n<ul>\n<li>A Central Sector Scheme on \u2018<u>Promotion of Agricultural Mechanisation for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delh<\/u>i\u2019 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>Pusa Decomposer by Indian Agricultural research Institute (IARI)\n<ul>\n<li>Pusa decomposer:\u00a0Bio-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>Taken by State Governments and Other agencies\n<ul>\n<li>Sensitising 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<h2>News Summary: Steps taken by Punjab Govt.<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>The Punjab agriculture department drafted a Rs 350 crore plan for subsidized machinery to curb stubble burning.\n<ul>\n<li>The rate of subsidy for individual farmers is <u>50% of the cost of equipment, and 80% for cooperative societies<\/u>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The Deputy Commissioners of all districts have held meetings with the farm union leaders.<\/li>\n<li>As many as 3,000 awareness camps have been organised to deter the farmers from setting stubble ablaze.<\/li>\n<li>Govt officials worked on ex-situ management of paddy also.\n<ul>\n<li>Several biomass handling units have been engaged.<\/li>\n<li>The brick-kilns have been mandated to use stubble as fuel.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1)\u00a0What is Pusa Decomposer?\u00a0<\/h3>\n<p>Pusa Decomposer is a microbial solution that can turn paddy straw into manure in 15-20 days. It&#8217;s a capsule that contains seven fungal species that help break down paddy straw. The fungi produce enzymes that aid in the decomposition process.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Q2)\u00a0What is Indian Agricultural research Institute (IARI)?<\/h3>\n<p>The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) is India&#8217;s leading national institute for agricultural research, education, and extension. It&#8217;s also known as the Pusa Institute. IARI is located in Delhi and is financed and administered by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). It&#8217;s India&#8217;s largest institute for research, higher education, and training in agricultural sciences.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/cities\/chandigarh\/stubble-burning-punjab-breathes-easy-as-farm-fires-down-by-half-8996795\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Farm fires down by half, Punjab breathes easy<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Farmers find stubble burning methods as a quick and cheap method for crop residue management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":37855,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37854","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\/37854","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=37854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}