Instances of burning stubble haven’t noticeably come down from last year
The Hindu
Punjab accounted for a high number of fires and there was a sharp increase in Haryana
A programme this October to check stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana by a private “agri-tech” firm claims to have reduced the paddy-area being burned by 92% over last year. This however doesn’t seem to have dissuaded the bulk of farmers in the States from burning stubble as multiple accounts suggest that instances weren’t noticeably reduced from last year.
In the programme, Bengaluru-based nurture.farm sprayed a bio-decomposer in the paddy fields of about 25,000 farmers in Punjab and Haryana in October.
The decomposers are a powder mixed in water meant to accelerate the process of turning rice stubble into compost. Untreated rice straw takes 4-8 weeks to disintegrate which is too long for the average farmer to wait to be able to sow the winter wheat crop.