A bio solution for Punjab’s rice stubble burning problem

In about 45 times, significant swathes of India’s northern plains and the national funds region will get started to be covered in a thick blanket of gray smog. The air excellent plummets, turning cities into veritable gas chambers. The smoke from the mass burning of paddy stubbles by farmers of Punjab and Haryana is not only a community overall health danger primarily during the Covid pandemic but also a worldwide humiliation for India. Why do farmers burn up the stubble and why can not we obtain a scientific alternative for what appears to be a simple plenty of challenge? There it’s possible some aid at hand this year. The Indian Agriculture Study Institute (IARI) has arrive up with a bio enzyme that can decompose the rice stubble as an alternative to farmers burning it. IARI has tied up an agritech startup identified as nurture farm to distribute the bio enzyme to farmers in these states for cost-free. BusinessLine’s TR Vivek speaks with Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, the director of IARI and Dhruv Sawhney, the COO of Nurture Farm, to know a lot more. Industry experts:

What is stubble burning and why do farmers do so?

Ashok Kumar Singh: The main cropping cycle that is adopted in the north-western plains (which includes Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh) is rice adopted by the wheat crop. Usually, the rice kinds take about 160 to a hundred sixty five times to cultivate. Therefore, there is not a lot hole involving the interval when the rice is harvested and the wheat is sowed. If the sowing is delayed, the wheat output comes down drastically. Thus, farmers vacation resort to burning paddy stalks and get the fields ready for when speedily. This comes about towards the end of Oct and the to start with 7 days of November. 

 

Do the farmers profit from this?

Ashok Kumar Singh: Burning will not profit farmers, it only results in air air pollution. It poses a overall health danger not only to the people residing in and all-around the farms, but also to all those living away from these locations. There are, however, numerous options for the farmer. A person technique is baling. You can make bales by utilizing machine balers to clear away the straw from the industry. If the straw is not eliminated, the farmers would have to opt for the in-situ administration of paddy straw (i.e handle paddy straw whilst in the industry). There is also the alternative of a joyful seeder, a machine that is designed to take up sowing in the standing paddy. Super seeder is an additional technique that can be utilised for facilitating the sowing of wheat when paddy strides are there in the industry. To facilitate this, we have launched the Pusa Decomposer.

What is the Pusa Decomposer? How does it enable to be an alternative to the matchstick?

Ashok Kumar Singh: The Pusa Decomposer comprises of 7 species of fungi. Most of these fungi live in the soil and are regarded for their potential to decompose paddy straw. Immediately after isolating them and purifying them, we study their efficacy on decomposing paddy straw. Then, dependent on their efficacy, we select the 7 species. This is sprayed on the paddy straw following it is harvested. The decomposer is a complementary alternative, it is not a substitute for devices. This is a extensive-expression sustainable alternative for maintaining good soil overall health. Folks have to understand it’s extensive-expression profit. I would not get in touch with it a magic because it usually takes 25 to 30 times to decompose the straw.

Inform me about nurture farms involvement with this. What is the plan behind partnering with IARI?

Dhruv Sawhney: Nurture farm has arrive into existence with a single solitary intention helping make farmer resilience. We have previously received about a million farmers on the system. Our mission was to detect the greatest technological innovation obtainable and we recognized the Pusa Decomposer as a terrific bio soil helpful technological innovation. I think the challenge was that it was obtainable in a capsule sort which required two weeks of planning by the farmers and the programs to disperse it across their fields weren’t conveniently obtainable.

Does the farmer has to pay back or is this a thing you you should not demand farmer for?

Dhruv Sawhney: We are not charging farmer anything at all for this, this is an totally cost-free company. But, we are not performing this purely out of charity we are performing this to make this a sustainable and a productive transition to sustainable agricultural methods.

What are your targets and ambitions in terms of amount of farmers and locations of land that you hope to attain beginning this year and likely ahead?

Ashok Kumar Singh: Punjab grows rice on a few million hectares of land and Haryana grows rice in one.two million hectares of land. About 15 to twenty million tonnes of paddy biomass is made on a few million hectares of land, and that is substantial. We have been measuring it incredibly routinely from 2016 onwards. The amount of fire spots have now arrive down. In 2018, there was a reduction of almost 50 per cent because of Federal government intervention by implies of machine substitutions. Equipment were being presented for baling, joyful seeders and tremendous seeders were being utilised but continue to a good deal of paddy straw is getting burnt. It is incredibly vital that we develop recognition amid farmers about the extensive-expression alternative for this.

Should really Punjab and Haryana be rising rice at all?

Ashok Kumar Singh: I would like to say that we need to diversify agriculture in Punjab. There are pair of solutions obtainable, for example, soybean, in kharif time especially, and maize are incredibly viable solutions. Soybean and maize jointly can also deal with the challenge of edible oil. We are importing oil well worth about Rs 60,000 to 70,000 crore every year. Soybean can incredibly very well be improve in Punjab, for a a little longer length, and will yield much better than the kinds grown in Central India. This will take care of numerous problems in a single go — the challenge of burning, the labour challenge (in situation of rice cultivation) and then the drinking water challenge – each individual kilo of rice involves about 3000 to 4000 litres of drinking water.