Farmers’ Unchecked Crop Burning Fuels India’s Air Pollution

It is important agricultural practice - and it should not be stopped. "Burning is an inexpensive, labor efficient means of removing unwanted crop residues prior to tillage or seedbed preparation. Farmers burn stubble and excess vegetation for a variety of reasons, not just simply to remove straw and duff. Burning cereal crop residues after harvest can somewhat reduce diseases where straw serves as a host to pathogens. Burning also results in changes in soil temperature, soil moisture, and nutrient availability.* Burning pastures and CRP grass/legume stands increases plant productivity by increasing the photosynthetic capability of plants. Burning grass pastures results in short-term increases in nitrogen mineralization which results in a short burst of nutrient available for the plant. Burning is also completed to control weeds and insects."

Burning crop residue is justified by farmers for 2 main economic reasons:
1.saves next crops sowing cost
2.needs lesser water (&less fuel for pumping)
Of course alternatives, Bio-electric are units needed but they ignore that both 1 and 2 are false. Farmers who have adopted no-till practices, and leave the crop residue on the soil, generally find that their their soil organic matter increases over time. Eventually this reduces both irrigation & fertilizer costs. Farmers have to educate themselves about these practices to help the quality of air for everyone.
http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/wwwpb-archives/ag/baudr136.html

Ppl in pak also practice he same but at a small level....this is why this year we are facing dangerous smog in nov in lahore n other areas....this smog also comes from indian punjab....ppl in both countries should act wisely

Same problem on a trip to Trinidad a few years ago. No pollution controls on cars, smoke from oil refineries, smoke from the roadside wire mesh trash cans that they set afire, and then more smoke from burning crops. It was awful. It is so easy to forget how far we have come in air quality in North America.
The right rails against the EPA, pretending that there has been no benefit to the laws and regs. I, for one, am incredibly grateful for these changes.

Pollution is an important problem obviously. I wonder about the report's privileging Delhi over the provinces. Aren't the farmers most directly affected? Why should they be fined? Air quality in Delhi has become worse and worse, and I suspect farmers have been burning the crops for decades. In other words, the worsening air quality has other, more important factors. What is that elephant in the room? Please tell us.

Not to minimize the serious air quality contributions from a mass population of relatively older technology gasoline and diesel vehicles stuck in the super traffic congested urban areas like Delhi, but this story sheds important light on the fact that air pollution everywhere has many contributors; some are easier to control than others. Seems like a no-brainer to launch a fleet of Happy Seeders for these farmers.

Harder, but as important is the need to get cleaner low sulfur diesel fuels in Delhi that will cut emissions from all vehicles and equipment overnight, and more importantly enable more advanced emissions control technology vehicles like we have in the U.S. with particulate filters and advanced emissions treatment systems to start to get a foothold there.

No Indian politician can afford to be seen as acting tough against farmers - its political suicide. Farmers get free electricity and water, subsidies which have negative effects short term as well as long-term - encourage farming of cash crops that may not be the optimal choice from a geographic and weather perspective. The only realistic solution is to incentivize good behavior through increased subsidies.

It is puzzling why the author suggests that each farmer needs a seeding machine of their own. The seeders are needed only once a year. What happened to machine cooperatives?

In India, even farting is related to elections. No government has ever been too powerful to stop people from doing anything that is disastrous. Be it see fake shootouts, border tension or havoc-wreaking crop burning. And colloquially such bravado politics is hailed with a greeting "Jai Ho"

If we had a fair and equitable Carbon Tax here. we could fund projects like this and in China.

The government should encourage farmers to share in the (subsidized) cost and use of seeders. The relatively small size of farms would make that feasible.

Perhaps combining some air-quality funding from the cities with this new shared-tractor approach would ensure there were enough seeders available when needed during the planting season.

"How Do You Hail a Tractor in India? All It Takes Is a Few Taps on Your Phone"
What in the World By AYESHA VENKATARAMAN OCT. 17, 2016
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/18/world/what-in-the-world/trringo-app-in...

In the US, the harvester combine equipment moves with the harvest, since there is a transition based on local seasons. This approach might help the farmers increase yields, the cities get better air quality, and the people with seeders get income too.

We have the same calamity in South Louisiana with the burning of sugarcane fields in autumn. The Federal law that forbids this practice has a provision for exceptions which all cultivators are routinely granted. However it is regulated by allowing calendar slots by location so that burning is evenly distributed geographically over a three month period. Still, the particulates are directly perceptible as are the plumes of smoke from the air and from the height of major bridges but to the untrained eye at ground level the problem is not apparent. There is no systematic measurement of the health and environmental impacts of sugarcane field burning which must be considerable.

I live in Delhi, having relocated after living almost two decades in the West, including Sweden, where pollution is taken very seriously.

The government is spineless where curbing pollution is concerned. Besides curbing the fires mentioned in the article, the dust from construction activity (sand, cement) is not controlled....construction companies are allowed to leave mounds of material in the open, in heavily populated areas, which contributes to dust with the slightest wind.

Let's not forget the status conscious Delhites. With blocked roads and poisonous levels of pollution, they still want to buy large cars, mostly SUVs, when one cannot even enjoy driving those cars the way they were engineered to be, either due to roads or having a driver.

The people need to demand more. And I may need to relocate back.

Providing all of the Punjab farmers with Happy Seeder machines would cost only $1.5 billion? Surely the Indian government would have that sort of money available? $1.5 billion would eliminate how many 10's or 100's of billions in damages to the health of 10's or 100's of millions of people? Shouldn't the Indian government spring for it?

Maybe the Bill Gates foundation can help farmers purchase the new seeders. A huge push is needed to halt the farm fires.