India’s efforts to reduce crop-waste burning, a major source of air pollution during the winter, by spending billions of rupees over the past four years, have done little to avert a sharp deterioration in air quality.
Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, part of the farm belt bordering the capital, New Delhi, accounts for 30% to 40% of air pollution in October and November 2021, according to air-quality monitoring agency SAFAR.
In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration set out to tackle the problem by establishing a fund to help farmers get rid of rice paddy straw, left out in the field by mechanised harvesters, by using machines.
It has taken 22.49 billion rupees ($302 million) and four years but the plan aimed at stopping farmers torching their crop waste has failed to have any measurable impact on air quality, with New Delhi again in the “very poor” category this month, as in previous years, SAFAR data showed.
“The subsidy plan looks good on paper, but officials have failed to address our practical problems,” said Kishan Lal, a grain grower. “Instead of turning Punjab and Haryana into a junkyard of these machines, the government should pay farmers 200 rupees for every 100 kg of rice straw which can be used as a feedstock for many industries,” said Agriculture Economist Devinder Sharma.
Source: https://www.reuters.com
