A new conversation is needed on farm fires

Why in the News

The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has cracked down on stubble burning in Punjab, a day after Delhi’s Environment Minister blamed the State’s farm fires for a spike in the Capital’s air pollution. The crackdown leaves a more basic question open: why farmers keep setting paddy straw on fire even after court orders, years of enforcement and policies meant to offer cleaner alternatives.

What is stubble burning, and why does it persist?

1. What it is: After the paddy harvest, farmers burn the leftover straw to clear their fields. It is the fastest way to ready a field for the next crop.
2. Legal status: Burning crop residue is illegal, with fines ranging from Rs 5,000 to Rs 30,000.
3. Why it matters: Smoke from these fires adds to air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) during the peak burning season.
4. The takeaway: As long as burning stays the easiest way to clear a field, fines alone cannot end it.

What has the CAQM done, and has it worked?

1. Show-cause notices: The Commission has issued show-cause notices to deputy commissioners and senior police officers in nine Punjab districts.
2. Personal accountability: It has warned officials in 12 districts that they will be held personally accountable for enforcement lapses.
3. Timing: The action is timely because it coincides with the peak stubble-burning season.
4. Limited air benefit: Farm-fire incidents have fallen over the past three years, particularly in Punjab, but not enough to bring a visible improvement in air quality.

Why can satellites miss farm fires?

1. Shift in burning time: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) and iFOREST studies show peak burning has moved to late afternoon and evening.
2. Fixed satellite passes: Satellites pass over farms at fixed times, so fires lit later in the day may go undetected.
3. New CAQM portal: The Commission’s new portal links satellite evidence with field-level action and could close this gap. Its success depends on agriculture officers verifying alerts and reporting violations.

Why do farmers keep burning straw?

1. Weak straw market: Farm fires will fall for good only if collecting and using straw pays. Industries have not bought enough biomass to give farmers reliable buyers.
2. Costly in-field management: In-situ management, meaning handling the straw within the field instead of burning it, remains costly for small cultivators.
3. Low returns: A CEEW study last month found that farmers increasingly remove straw from their fields, but most of them earn inadequate returns from it.
4. Weather squeeze: Unusual weather this year, including October rain, delayed the harvest and shortened the window for sowing wheat.
5. Free power for paddy: Free electricity for irrigation keeps paddy cheap to grow. Paying for water would push Punjab farmers to cut paddy acreage, tackling farm emissions at source.

Challenges

1. Punishment without alternatives: Notices and fines raise the cost of burning but give farmers no cheaper way to clear straw, so behaviour changes little.
2. Detection gaps: Evening fires that escape satellite passes leave enforcement dependent on field checks by agriculture officers.
3. Farmer uncertainty: Ecological and economic uncertainty, worsened by erratic weather, makes farmers unwilling to bear new costs of straw management.
4. Free power reform: Ending free farm electricity withdraws a benefit Punjab’s farmers rely on, which makes it the hardest measure to adopt.

Way Forward

1. Machinery access: State governments should improve small farmers’ access to straw management machinery.
2. Local collection networks: Build local networks to collect paddy straw so it can reach industrial users.
3. Assured buyers: Secure dependable buyers for straw so that removing it earns farmers a fair return.

Conclusion

Enforcement can punish a farm fire but cannot make the alternative pay. Whether Punjab builds a working market for straw and stops subsidising paddy through free power will decide if farm fires fall for good.

Back2Basics: Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM)

1. Status: A statutory body for the NCR and Adjoining Areas, in charge since 2021. It replaced the non-statutory Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority (EPCA).
2. GRAP enforcement: It enforces the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which tightens curbs in four stages linked to the Air Quality Index (AQI).
3. GRAP origin: The Environment Ministry first notified GRAP in January 2017 on Supreme Court directions.

Matching Previous Year Question

“[2015, GS1, 12 marks] Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the three mega cities of the country but the air pollution is much more serious problem in Delhi as compared to the other two. Why is this so?”