Sangrur/Patiala: His eyes watering from the smoke billowing round him and charred paddy stubble at his ft, the farmer, from Gobindpura village in Punjab’s Sangrur district, isn’t within the temper to take heed to a lecture.
“Stubble burning could be very dangerous, we all know this,” he mentioned, moments after lighting a fireplace. “However we don’t have an possibility. We don’t have any assets. The federal government solely talks however doesn’t assist.” He declined to present his identify earlier than strolling into the hazy distance.
Going by satellite tv for pc pictures, Sangrur has recorded the very best incidence of stubble burning in Punjab this season, however it’s hardly an remoted case.
As one enters Punjab from Haryana on the nationwide freeway, the scene on both aspect of the street resembles a pastoral apocalypse — black fields, flashes of fireside, smoky skies — a lot earlier than approaching Sangrur district, residence constituency of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.
Between 15 September and 1 November, Punjab registered 17,846 occasions of residue burning, in accordance with satellite tv for pc information from ICAR-Indian Agricultural Analysis Institute. That’s 18.5 per cent greater than final 12 months in the identical interval.
In comparison with Punjab, different states which have recorded “energetic fireplace occasions as a result of rice residue burning” this season are lightweights — whereas there have been 2,083 incidents in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh had 777, 345 and 972, respectively.
Punjab Tuesday alone registered a complete of 1,842 rice residue burning incidents, having recorded over 2,000 fires on two of the 5 earlier days. Throughout the state, two of the worst offenders, so to talk, are Sangrur and Patiala districts.
In comparison with the identical interval final 12 months, Sangrur has seen a 137 per cent improve in farm fires, whereas for Patiala it has been a 70 per cent rise.
So, what provides? When ThePrint visited the 2 districts, it was clear that farmers, by way of numerous consciousness campaigns, are cognisant of the ill-effects of stubble burning, together with air pollution. Nevertheless, it isn’t sufficient of an incentive to encourage a behaviour change, they are saying, provided that different strategies to eliminate stubble are costlier.
Agriculture Division officers on the bottom, in the meantime, declare that it’s practically not possible to implement guidelines and that they’ve change into scapegoats due to lack of political will and inaction from larger authorities.
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‘How can we not attempt to save cash?’
Exhausting at work since 6 within the morning, his legs and arms blackened with soot, Sangrur farmer Gurmeet Singh goals of sooner or later shifting to Canada. He has a postgraduate diploma, which could enhance his prospects, he believes.
Nevertheless, in relation to clearing fields of paddy residue and readying them for the subsequent spherical of seeding, trendy alternate options don’t work for him. The most important cause? Value.
“If we begin investing in equipment to keep away from burning, all our funding will go into that,” he mentioned, including that the costs of labour and diesel are additionally prohibitive. “As it’s, we’re barely making any revenue. We now have to sit down for protests to safeguard ourselves from the federal government.”
Gurminder Singh, a farmer in Patiala, feels that stubble burning can solely cease if everybody is supplied with a seeder — machines that may uproot the stubble and likewise sow seeds within the cleared land.
“Farmers are the primary folks to be affected by the air pollution brought on by stubble burning however we’re already working in losses, how can we not attempt to save cash? If all of us get tremendous seeders, nobody will burn stubble.”
Some Agriculture Division officers, nonetheless, declare that seeders have been subsidised for farmers and there was some uptake. The federal government additionally gives tremendous seeders to farmers on a rotational foundation in numerous districts.
“We now have given equipment value Rs 15-20 crore with subsidies to the farmers this season. This contains tremendous seeders, pleased seeders, amongst others,” mentioned Dr Amarjeet Singh, Agriculture Division officer from Sangrur.
He insists the state of affairs within the district isn’t as dangerous as it’s being made out to be. “If seen by way of share of cultivated land, Sangrur doesn’t have the very best variety of incidents of stubble burning. Sangrur has 2,91,000 hectares of cultivated land,” he mentioned.
The chief agriculture officer in Patiala, Dr Harinder Singh, acknowledges that worth is the principle barrier.
“If one makes use of different strategies of eliminating stubble, the fee for the farmer will increase by practically Rs 3,000 per acre,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, in accordance with him, it’s anticipated that by the top of the season, Patiala would have fared higher than it did final 12 months. “We nonetheless count on a 50 per cent discount within the stubble-burning incidents in comparison with final 12 months in Patiala. Over 80 per cent of the harvesting is finished.”
One other potential different to stubble burning that farmers have been apprised of, Amarjeet mentioned, is bio-decomposing, a course of that turns crop residue into manure inside two to a few weeks. However this, for a lot of farmers, is just too lengthy a niche earlier than sowing the subsequent crop.
Then there’s the choice of reducing the stubble and making bales out of them. However whereas this methodology has few prices apart from transportation, the industries that use these bales, like bio-thermal energy crops or bio oil producers, aren’t discovered all over the place.
Nevertheless, he admitted that past spreading consciousness amongst farmers, there’s not a lot that officers like him can do by way of making certain compliance.
Patiala’s Harinder Singh agreed. “The issue is that we will’t take any punitive motion and thus it turns into troublesome for us to manage such incidents,” he mentioned.
‘Authorities desires change, however no motion might be taken in opposition to farmers’
Amid a blame-game between the Punjab authorities and the central authorities, Agriculture Division officers declare they’ve change into fall guys since nobody desires to take any motion in opposition to farmers.
The Punjab authorities has taken harsh motion in opposition to Agriculture Division officers within the wake of stubble burning incidents, suspending a number of Sunday for alleged dereliction of responsibility, together with the chief agriculture officer of Sangrur, Harbans Singh.
Different officers ThePrint spoke to mentioned they believed this was unfair, and blamed “politics” and cussed farmers’ unions for the state of affairs.
“Our job is to unfold consciousness. We now have organised camps, gone on floor to satisfy folks occasionally. However it’s the air pollution board that may take motion,” mentioned Amarjeet Singh.
“We’re caught within the center,” mentioned one other senior official from the Agriculture Division in Patiala. “The federal government desires change however there is no such thing as a motion that may be taken in opposition to the farmers.”
This official was additionally upset concerning the suspension of his colleagues. “We work very laborious and nonetheless get suspensions. If we don’t have any energy to take motion, how can we deliver change? The sport of politics and vote-bank is the barrier for change,” the official added.
Based on him, the central authorities’s repeal of the three farm legal guidelines within the wake of farmers’ protests has emboldened farm unions. “Many occasions after we go into fields, farmers encompass us and don’t allow us to go. We now have to hunt police’s assist to return,” the Patiala official mentioned.
A sluggish shift in mindset
The older technology is ready in its methods, however there’s hope but for youthful farmers, mentioned Dr. Hardeep Singh Sabhikhi, assistant professor at Patiala’s Krishi Vigyan Kendra, part of the Nationwide Agricultural Analysis System (NARS).
“Little question there are difficulties in convincing farmers to cease stubble burning. However the youthful technology is able to embrace newer strategies to cease it. There’s a constructive change within the mindset,” he mentioned.
The federal government can also be making an attempt to advertise self-help teams that may pool of their assets to buy equipment, he added, which is getting some traction amongst youthful farmers at the least.
“Earlier, farmers weren’t even able to hear however now among the youthful ones come ahead to ask about methods during which they’ll cease stubble burning,” Hardeep mentioned. “There are instances when elders of a household confront us in opposition to change throughout consciousness camps. However when the camps recover from, youthful famers of the identical household come to grasp the alternate options to stubble burning.”
(Edited by Asavari Singh)
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