INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT KOZHIKODE

EXECUTIVE POST GRADUATE PROGRAMMES

ENVIRONMENTAL GOVERNANCE & SUSTAINABILITY

PROJECT REPORT
AIR POLLUTION- STUBBLE BURNING
CONVERTING AGRICULTURE WASTE INTO BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITY

Batch 15
Term 4
Section E
Instructor Dr. Kamal Kishore Sharma
Group Number 12

Group No Roll No Name Email ID

EPGP-15E-018 BISWARUP BANERJEE biswarup15e@iimk.edu.in
EPGP-15E-030 HARSVARDHAN TRIPATHY harsvardhan15e@iimk.edu.in
EPGP-15D-051 PADAM SHREE GERA padam15d@iimk.edu.in
EPGP-15D-085 SNEHASHIS ROY snehashis15d@iimk.edu.in
12
EPGP-15E-045 NAVONEEL DAS GUPTA navoneel15e@iimk.edu.in
EPGP-15E-049 NIVASRAJ K nivasraj15e@iimk.edu.in
EPGP-15E-085 SHUBHAM UMESH SHIRODKAR shubhamu15e@iimk.edu.in
EPGP-15D-097 URAL KISHORE KOTA ural15d@iimk.edu.in

Page | 1
 Content

History 1

Remedial Policies 2

Interventions By Government 3

Interventions By Society 4

Interventions By Individuals 5

Business Opportunities & Beyond 6

References 7

Page | 2
History

KEY CAUSES OF STUBBLE BURNING

Agricultural Cropping pattern

Rice wheat cropping pattern which is one of the most prominently followed in our country. In this pattern first rice is
harvested i.e in the period immediately after rains and farmers must quickly prepare their fields for subsequent
wheat crop. Hence stubble burning becomes fastest and economic method of waste management considering the
timeline.

Availability of adequate farming infrastructure.

Another one of the important reasons for stubble burning in India is on account of lack of availability /easy economic
access of modern infrastructure & resources for managing agriculture residue. Hence farmers are left with no other
options than the conventional culture of burning stubble. Example non availability of modern mechanized machinery
like happy seeders, straw balers etc.

Lack of awareness & education.

Most of the farmers in India do not have awareness about the Negative impact that stubble burning has on their life
& environment. Also our system lacks in educating the farmers about the impact & alternative economic
solutions/methods which are made available for carrying out agriculture in sustainable manner.

Economic Pressure /Competitive pricing.

Intense Economic pressure on the farmers, as traditional practices like manual removals, ploughing & mulching are
intensive labour oriented and hence they are very expensive. Hence in order to sustain in these tough competitive
markets it becomes a need of an hour for the framers to work towards reducing the cost so as to have an sustainable
business and hence Stubble burning provides fast & cheap solutions towards waste management.

Government Polices and aids.

Government of India have launched various programs to support the farmers by means of subsidies & incentives to
purchase modern agricultural equipment’s & infrastructure. However due to lack of awareness campaigns, lower
education background of the farmers, corruption in Govt bodies have curtailed farmers from availing maximum
benefits from such beneficial schemes.

Preservation of Ground water act.

Ground water preservation act 2009 implemented to prevent lowering of ground water table on account of excessive
usage of ground water by farmers to grow paddy considering its high MSP by Govt. The law put restriction on the
sowing & transplantation period of paddy to monsoon, this results in delaying entire harvest time & thus results in
providing less time to prepare the field for wheat, leading to stubble burning.

Page | 3
Effects of Stubble Burning

Air Pollution
• Stubble burning emits harmful pollutants: PM, CO, NOx, VOCs.
• Consequences: severe air pollution, health risks.
• Health impacts: asthma, bronchitis, respiratory diseases.
• Prolonged exposure worsens conditions.
• Threat to human health, especially in heavily affected areas.

Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Stubble burning emits high levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs), mainly CO2 and CH4.
• CO2, a long-lasting GHG, and CH4, with stronger heat-trapping abilities, are released.
• Incomplete combustion and soil temperature rise cause methane emissions.
• Resultant GHGs contribute to climate change, escalating temperature rise and extreme weather
occurrences.
• Burning leads to increased GHG levels, worsening global climate issues.

Soil Degradation
• Stubble burning's intense heat transforms soil's physical, chemical, and biological aspects.
• High temperatures lower soil microbial activity, damaging organic matter.
• Soil fertility suffers as organic matter's depletion affects nutrient retention for plants.
• Continuous stubble burning decreases soil productivity gradually.
• Decline in productivity leads to increased dependency on synthetic fertilizers.
• This reliance on chemicals exacerbates environmental problems.

Impact on Biodiversity
• Stubble burning negatively impacts local biodiversity by destroying habitats for wildlife species like
insects, birds, and small mammals.
• Loss of these habitats disrupts ecosystems, affecting predator-prey relationships and causing a
decline in biodiversity.
• Pollutants released from stubble burning harm wildlife and aquatic ecosystems, impacting their
health and viability.
• Sustainable agricultural practices like mulching, crop residue incorporation, and no-till farming can
mitigate stubble burning's environmental toll.
• These methods help preserve soil health, reduce emissions, and protect human health and local
ecosystems.
• Shifting towards sustainable practices is crucial to address the consequences of stubble burning on
biodiversity and the environment.
• It requires a collective effort from farmers, policymakers, and communities to adopt and promote
these sustainable agricultural techniques.
• Encouraging education and incentives for adopting these practices can facilitate a smoother
transition away from stubble burning.
• Long-term benefits of sustainable agriculture include healthier ecosystems, improved soil fertility,
and enhanced resilience against environmental challenges.

Health Impact
• Crop residue burning has acknowledged negative impacts on local communities.
Page | 4
 • Household surveys revealed health issues during burning seasons:
• Coughing (45%)
• Eye irritation (33%)
• Headache (31%)
• Nausea (29%)
• Skin irritation (23%)
• Respiratory allergies (22%) (Table 2).
• Other reported effects: Blurred vision, bronchial infection, dizziness, asthma, fatigue.
• Respiratory allergies link directly to air pollution.
• Severity depends on temperature and plume dispersion.
• Cheng et al. (2011) noted adverse health effects indoors and outdoors, including cardiac and
respiratory issues.
• Delhi saw 7350–16,200 premature deaths and 6.0 million asthma attacks yearly due to increased
emissions from crop residue burning in north-western India.

Remedial Policies
By being ploughed directly into the soil or composted, these crop leftovers, specifically as field residues, were natural
resource that have historically contributed to the stability and fertility of the soil. Effective field residue management
has helped improve erosion prevention and irrigation effectiveness. These practices were enough to cater the need
of managing the stubble for farmers till the last century.

However, such conventional sustainable practices are now economically and practically constrained by the large-scale
and quick speed of crop production. Harvester utilized for crop cutting improves the efficiency in farming but leaves a
bigger size stubble, which rather has become the main source of problem.

Given the circumstances, it became necessary to develop a suitable package of technological and policy interventions
for the management of crop residues, which the States can then embrace. Thus, the "National Policy for
Management of Crop Residue (NPMCR)" formulated policies aiming to achieve the following main goals:

1. Controlling the burning of crop residue to prevent environmental degradation and loss of soil nutrients
and minerals by promoting in-situ management (incorporation in soil, mulching, baling/binding for use as
domestic/industrial fuel, fodder)

2. Use of crop residue for various purposes were identified, like:

• charcoal gasification,
• power generation,
• as industrial raw material for production of bioethanol,
• packing material,
• supply to paper/board/panel industry,
• composting, and mushroom cultivation, etc.

But how to control the situation, make the farmers to align to these objectives is the most important aspect. This
must suffice the need of farmers without creating much of a financial & physical burden to them.

Hence, policies for promoting methods for the best possible use and in-situ management of crop residue to preserve
priceless soil nutrients and minerals and enhance overall soil health has been developed & impartation has started.
The Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode has been developed for many such options. But further enhancement for

Page | 5
standardized & ease of adoption for farmers is to be supported. Many existing policies have built the capacity of
different stakeholders, such as farmers and extension agents, through crop development programs. Still setting up
field-level demonstrations on crop residue management across all initiatives and schemes is to be strengthened.

Due to loopholes in the business models formulated,

farmers are still facing issues. Measures are still not
cost effective for farmers. The process involved are
time consuming & remedies available are not in a
structured manner readily available for them. The
supply Chain management and cost involved to it is
hampering the implementation of these policies. To
explore more, now we will be looking into
Interventions by Government & Technology.

Interventions By the Government

The government has launched several programs to increase the nation's production and consumption of biofuels and diversify
the country's energy consumption mix. Since stubble can be a major feedstock for the biofuel industry government policies
targeted toward the development and proliferation of this industry directly ties into reduction of stubble burning in India. The
most significant policies explored by the government so far are as follows:

 Since 2001, when India launched the 5% Ethanol Blending (E5) Program, the Indian government has
implemented several policies and programs to support the country's biofuel sector. The National Policy on
Biofuels, which was introduced in 2009, suggested a voluntary goal of 20% blending by 2017 for both
biodiesel and bioethanol. The National Policy on Biofuels 2018 was introduced in 2018 with a revised goal of
blending 20% bioethanol and 5% biodiesel by 2030.

 With India's enormous biodiversity, these policies aim to promote a wider range of domestically available
feedstock exploration. They do this by providing the necessary financial support, establishing the feedstock
supply chain, and encouraging research and innovation in biofuel production technologies for both new and
existing feedstocks.

 To control crop residue in-situ on farms, the Commission of Air Quality Management in the National Capital
Region and Adjacent Areas (CAQM) created an action plan and framework. As part of this strategy, they
offered financial support in the form of subsidies for the use of machinery. The funds allocated under the
scheme are as below:

State wise Funds Allocated under the scheme (In Crores)

Year Punjab Haryana Uttar NCT of Indian Council of Total

Pradesh Delhi Agricultural
Research (ICAR)

2018-19 269.38 137.84 148.60 0.00 28.51 584.33

2019-20 273.80 192.06 105.28 4.52 18.48 594.14

Page | 6 2020-21 272.50 170.00 120.20 0.00 8.00 570.70

2021-22 331.94 193.35 159.59 0.00 6.02 690.90

  Chhattisgarh Model: The government of Chhattisgarh had conducted an experiment that entailed the
creation of Gauthans, which are basically five-acre plots that are allocated to each village, where leftover
stubble is gathered (donated voluntarily) and combined with natural enzymes and cow dung to create
organic fertilizers.

In the opinion of the group some of the measures that can be considered by the Government going forward are
mentioned below:

1. To create a smooth biofuel supply chain, farmers, tribal communities, and other local feedstock aggregators
must be incentivized so as not to engage in stubble burning and instead enable its conversion to biomass.
This is a relatively generic statement, but the idea is this the grassroot level from which incentivizing schemes
may start and the govt can work their way backwards towards broader and more overarching programs and
policies.

2. The government should implement tax exemptions on the profits earned by the feedstock aggregators
supplying biomass to biofuel aggregators. Again, this is a more specific use case of the a possible incentive
scheme.

3. A significant section of India's land area is waste land, which the government can profitably use through
systematic interventions to produce energy crops like bamboo, sugarbeet, etc. The government may allocate
separate funds to carry out initiatives that encourage the use of waste land to produce such energy crops.
This is something that can enable market development for the biofuel manufacturing ecosystem by creating
more feedstock, thereby resulting in a synergistic effect in reducing stubble burning and instead encouraging
its conversion into profitable feedstock for the industry,

4. The current scheme offered by Haryana pays farmers INR 1000 per acre as an incentive for managing
agricultural residue ex situ. Farmers should receive similar incentives for accumulating biomass from other
state governments or from the central government. This is an example of state level policies that can be
adopted across the rest of the country.

5. In India, biofuel generation technologies are still in their infancy. The government in India ought to think
about offering tax breaks for early adopters of technologies that are not yet fully developed. This is in line
with how any rational government would react when it wants to develop an industry from nascency to a
certain level of maturity.

6. The Production Linked Incentive Scheme (PLI) program should take biofuel initiatives into account. The
program currently covers 14 areas. The plan's implementation for biofuel projects will facilitate the quick
establishment of facilities for procuring biomass and producing biofuel, much as it has for solar modules.

Intervention by Society
Stubble burning has a lasting impact on local air &
Soil quality which subsequently affects the
livelihood of hundreds of people. The farmers have
not halted the practice even after multiple requests
Page | 7
from environmental activist and government agencies. Although Government is taking lot of efforts to reduce air
pollution by Stuble burning, managing and eliminating the practice of residue burning requires active participation of
the society as a whole.

Unfortunately, many farmers are unaware of side effects of stubble burning. Spreading of awareness among the
farmers about stubble burning and its ill effects will encourage them to stop this practice. Children are the future of
the nation. School and college going students can play a major role in environment building against any ill of the
society. Educating children’s and youngsters can prove very successful in mobilizing the society against issues like
environmental degradation which demand community actions.

Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) in Punjab have more methodically concentrated on students under "Promotion of
Agricultural Mechanization for In-situ Management of Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and
NCT of Delhi" to encourage students to get involved in the widespread use of efficient residue management.

The ICAR-Agricultural Technology Application Research

Institute (ATARI) also awarded Ms. Sonali, a 10th standard
student from Jind's Dhakal hamlet, who filed a police
report against her father for burning residue.

Activities like debate and essay and slogan writing

competitions, village awareness rallies etc. can be
organized to create awareness among youngsters and
other stake holders. Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)
coordinated the rally with students to convey the ill effects of residue burning to the farmers and other stakeholders.

Local panchayat and social welfare organizations should arrange awareness sessions by inviting speakers who are
expert about the various technologies which are available for in-situ crop residue management.

Interventions By Individuals

Sant Balbir Singh Seechewal (ECO Baba)

• Led efforts to clean the highly polluted Kali Bein river in Punjab, addressing the
major pollution source of agriculture runoff, including stubble burning residue.

• Advocated for sustainable agricultural practices and raised awareness about the
environmental impact of stubble burning.

Bhagwan Singh, a Farmer in Punjab:

• Implemented alternative methods to manage crop residue without burning.

• Showcased successful non-burning techniques, such as using the residue for composting or mulching,
inspiring other farmers to adopt eco-friendly practices.

Environmental NGOs In North India

• Conducted awareness campaigns and workshops.

• Educated farmers about the ecological consequences of stubble burning and

promoted alternative practices, contributing to behavioral change.

Page | 8
Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs)
• Coordinated awareness rallies and campaigns.

• Collaborated with farmers, students, and local communities to disseminate

information about the negative impacts of stubble burning and the
adoption of sustainable alternatives.

Youth Groups and Students In North India

• Participated in debates, essays, and awareness activities.

• Actively engaged in spreading awareness among peers, communities, and farmers, advocating for
responsible agricultural practices.

Local Panchayats and Social Welfare Organizations

• Organized expert-led awareness sessions.

• Invited specialists to educate communities about available technologies for

in-situ crop residue management, fostering informed decision-making.

Page | 9