The Union government has asked the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Rohtak to monitor a federal programme to curb the burning of paddy residue, the cause of severe annual pollution in northwest India during winters, an official said.
The business school will also suggest ways in which states and the Centre as well as various agencies can cooperate better on tackling farm fires.
States tend to bicker on the extent of funding they need under the Centre’s programme to provide farmers with subsidised equipment to dispose of stubble after paddy harvests.
Under the programme rolled out in 2018-19, the Union government has released ₹3138 crore to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi till 2022-23.
Last year, Union agriculture minister Narendra Tomar said a third of the allocated amount was yet to be utilized without naming any state while declining Punjab’s demand for an additional acre-based subsidy to make stubble-management equipment more affordable.
In north India’s food-bowl states, farmers set aflame paddy stalks around October to clear their fields for their next crop. This releases smoke, carbon dioxide, toxins, and planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.
The air becomes unbreathable as dense smoke forms a trough barricaded by the Himalayas running from north to east, enveloping Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and even parts of Bihar. The annual pollution crisis lasts weeks, prompting emergency measures in the national capital.
The Rohtak-based institute will carry out field assessments to see if machinery, funding, and current measures are good enough. It will conduct district-wise mapping of equipment to avoid stubble burning and drawbacks.
The institute will recommend strategic measures that may be required. It will also gauge the “perception” of farmers on switching to environmentally friendly measures to harvest paddy.
Paddy is the main summer staple and a key source of farm income in India, the world’s largest rice exporter.
Incidents of farm fires have declined since the launch of the federal scheme but not uniformly across states. An Indian Agricultural Research Institute survey found a “positive correlation” between the availability of subsidized machinery for farmers, such as seeders and balers, which make neat, compressed lumps of paddy stubble, and the reduction in incidents of burning.
On December 5, 2022, data released by the Press Information Bureau showed overall stubble-burning incidents declined by 31.5% from 78,550 in 2021 to 53,792 in 2022. The declines in Haryana and Punjab, two large wheat growers, were 47.60% and 30%, it said.
