Less Time Gap Between Two Crops Motivates Farmers To Burn Stubble: Samit Deb, Chief People Officer, Birlasoft
During recent past, Delhi-NCR had faced a medical emergency from smog and stubble burning, which in the Western part of India was pointed out as the root cause. Birlasoft is among the private players who are working towards a solution for this issue with their project named Shodhan.
Samit Deb, Chief People Officer Birlasoft gives insight to BW Businessworld through this exclusive interview:
Delhi’s real culprit is PM2.5 and PM10 which gets emitted more in stubble burning and through other means. What do Shodhan people have to say about this?
Most of the PM2.5 pollution is combustion based. For example, more than 95 per cent of emissions from diesel, petrol, and natural gas combustion falls under PM2.5. Most of the open waste burning pollution, biomass burning pollution and coal combustion at boilers, fall under PM2.5.
PM10 particulates come from mechanical processes – like dust on the roads due to the constant vehicular movement, from the construction sites, and seasonal dust storms. Shodhan project aims to curb biomass burning in Punjab. With the agenda of “Zero Residue burning” village, two-step model was framed, first, create an awareness, in both the adopted villages about ill-effects of burning and introducing technologies available for straw management, second, farmers were provided the solution on the ground in terms of farm machines and equipment for straw management. So, Shodhan has taken a step which reduces PM2.5 in air, through its “educating technology” based framework.
Why this issue is not so serious in states like Uttarakhand & Chattisgarh? Is it because they still practice traditional (Paramparagat) practices of cultivation?
Traditional practices are not exactly the reason because, in other states, the majority of paddy straw is used as animal fodder. Wheat-Paddy is the major crop in Punjab and Haryana. Paddy straw has high silica content which is not preferred and recommended for animal feeding. So these states prefer Wheat straw as fodder. In terms of production, about 21 and 7.5 million tonne paddy straw is generated in Punjab and Haryana respectively, which is quite high as compared to the demand for cattle feeding. The time gap is less between two crops, which is 15-20 days, so Punjab and Haryana, chooses residue burning.
Soil definitely loses its nutrient value from stubble burning. This creates more demand of fertilizer. What is Shodhan doing in this area?
It is true, due to burning of paddy straw, nutrients present in straw and microorganisms in the soil are lost. There is no denying that this also leads to increased use of fertilizers to some extent.
In Project Shodhan, with the help of agriculture sector experts, the farmers of the adopted villages were sensitized in awareness camps regarding various ill effects of burning paddy straw and its effect on environment, livelihood, soil, and yield of the crop. Comparative analysis in terms of soil quality, yield and cost had been detailed to the farmers in the one-to-one campaigning of our project in Villages.
Ministry of agriculture does not find a 100 Rs/ quintal compensation for stubble as a solution, what is the view of Birlasoft regarding this?
I cannot comment on government policy. However, cost machinery operation to manage paddy straw varies from Rs.3000-8000 per hectare which comes approximately Rs 50 to Rs 130 per quintal for grains.
Machine dependent cultivation is a better solution or a gap of few weeks to get the stubble decompose itself?
Paddy straw does not decompose in few weeks. Time period between harvest of paddy crop and subsequent seeding of wheat and planting of potatoes, vegetables is 2-3 weeks. Thus to manage a huge quantity of paddy straw, in-situ mechanical management options are better solution necessary.
What are the two most influential straw management techniques you have noticed?
Mechanical options for management of paddy straw in the field can be classified into three categories:
1. Collection of straw, 2.Direct seeding in straw, 3. Incorporation of straw in soil
Collection of Paddy straw- It is collected from the field using Balers. These machines form compacted round or rectangular bales of straw. Collected straw can be used in biomass plants as fuels. This method is useful in those areas where there are biomass plants in the vicinity of the farm.
Direct seeding- For instance, wheat can be directly seeded in the combined harvested paddy field with ‘happy seeder’. The straw is left in the field as surface mulch which helps in weed reduction and soil moisture conservation. This is the cheapest and the quickest method of in-situ straw management.
Straw incorporation in the soil- Paddy straw can be incorporated into the soil using Straw Chopper. This machine chops the straw into small pieces. The chopped straw can be incorporated into the soil using tillage implements. Incorporated paddy straw adds nutrients to the soil and organic carbon which improves soil health. Suited for wheat, potato, and vegetables.
All these methods are effective in the management of paddy straw and farmers can choose any method according to their suitability. In project Shodhan, all three techniques have been used on the requirement of farmers. However, direct seeding and incorporation are better for sustainable agriculture, also it reduces the dependability and increases the health of soil.
Paddy-Straw as a fodder can be a good solution! Has Shodhan done some research to train farmers about this?
Due to high silica content in paddy straw generated in the region, it is not preferred as animal fodder.
What is the expectation of Birlasoft from Shodhan project? Any deadline.
Shodhan’s first phase of Birlasoft CSR project has covered two villages some 1600 acres of area and 2100 beneficiaries in 2017. This pilot project of Birlasoft has so far been successful in making a change in the conventional practice of burning crop residue during the harvest season in the month of Oct-Nov to get ready for new crop.
Birlasoft, want to be the catalyst for big change and will continue to work with other stakeholders of this ecosystem. Our companies, volunteers, civic societies, NGOs to make this initiative a bigger movement in 2018, thereby we are aiming to reduce PM 2.5 PM from the air of Delhi-NCR and nearby states.
