Why let North India choke?
Today India is the second most polluted country in the world, whereas Bangladesh is the most polluted country. The video linked above portrays a bleak picture. And yet it doesn’t talk of the horrendous air pollution that North India is subjected to every winter.
The issue of air pollution in North India, during the winter months, has turned into a major public health and environmental crisis. The burning of stubble, which refers to the leftover stalks after the harvest of rice crops, is the main cause of the severe decline in air quality. The levels of smog and particulate matter in the atmosphere become hazardous. This problem is concentrated in the northern states like Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Uttar Pradesh. The other states in India do not experience the same magnitude of stubble burning. So what is the story behind it?
It doesn’t happen in other states because
- Less use of mechanized farming. Modern agricultural practices, including the use of combine harvesters, leave behind large amounts of stubble (residual straw) in the fields. These machines cut the rice stalks at a higher level, leaving long, tough residues that are difficult to remove manually. The quickest and cheapest way to clear the fields is to burn this stubble, which releases smoke and particulate matter into the atmosphere. Moreover, the stubble of the rice/paddy crop from the Northern states is unfit for use as cattle fodder owing to the high silica content in the variety used.
- Different Cropping Patterns: In many states outside North India, farmers don’t follow the rice-wheat cropping pattern. States in South India, for instance, grow crops like pulses, millets, and vegetables that do not leave behind large amounts of stubble.
Until a few years ago, when farmers in Punjab burnt the remnants of the rice crops in their fields in preparation for sowing wheat, the smoke from such fires was confined to Punjab. The delay in burning stubble is why Delhi is enveloped in smoke today.
Earlier, the smoke was confined to Punjab. According to a report in The Sunday Guardian, the delay in burning stubble is due to pressure from the Punjab government on farmers for corporate gains.
The Punjab government passed the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act in 2009. According to this law, farmers cannot sow rice in April and must wait until mid-June to sow rice. Haryana has also copied Punjab and passed a similar law. Between sowing, germination, and harvest, rice takes months and the restraint on germination of the grains meant that the crops would now be harvested and cleared only in October, by which time the course of the wind changes.
The change in the direction of the wind, the Butterfly Effect caused Delhi to choke when the law was implemented and rippled into a massive problem for people in Delhi. Before this law was passed, the problem in Delhi was limited to vehicular and industrial pollution, apart from smoke from bonfires in winter, and there were no reports of the entire metropolitan area being enveloped by smoke, reports Ecologise.
The Punjab government had argued that this law was passed to preserve groundwater; saying the rice fields were depleting groundwater by not only using too much water but also losing a significant quantity of water to evaporation.
However, this argument is flawed. According to the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), rice fields contribute to recharging the water table and very little is lost to evaporation. The data from Uttar Pradesh in IWMI’s analysis show that rice fields in the state contributed to increasing the groundwater table level, thus supporting the claim that water in rice fields replenishes the aquifers, reported The Sunday Guardian.
The group that has been primarily responsible for exerting pressure to move away from growing rice in the name of “crop diversification” is the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which operates out of the American embassy; and aids corporates very often. The Monsanto Company is an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation that is currently providing GMO seeds to the Punjab government. It has a research institute promulgating research on creating maize seeds.
According to a report in The Sunday Guardian, India’s surplus food grain supply is a sore fact for Monsanto and other proponents of GMO food, who want others to believe that the world is going to battle a serious shortage of supply if GMO plants are not encouraged. In 2012, the then Punjab Chief Minister asked Monsanto to set up a research centre for creating maize seeds and announced plans to reduce the area under the cultivation of rice by around 45% to grow maize.
The law reducing the period during which farmers are permitted to grow rice has further accentuated this problem. Farmers have now developed a method of crop diversification by growing multiple varieties of rice/paddy and staggering the time of sowing these varieties for two months beginning in April.
Monsanto now offers the replacement of rice with its GMO crops as a solution that will increase the level of subsoil water, but its fertilizers and pesticides have accumulated in the ground over the years and this has led to poor retention of moisture in the soil, leading farmers to pump excessive amounts of underground water.
Monsanto’s GMO products are known to cause several problems. Its maize is known for killing bees leading to a shortage of seeds of plants such as onions which depend on bees for pollination.
Several European countries have banned its maize as its pollen has been responsible for killing entire colonies of bees.
Monsanto’s GMO maize is also not fit for human consumption and is primarily used as chicken feed. Likewise, most of Monsanto’s wheat is used to feed animals because it is unfit for human consumption.
Today, farmers burn the residual straw from the cultivation of rice as it is the cheapest method of clearing the fields. A ban on such burning will destroy the livelihood of small farmers and give way to industrial farming with a few large corporations such as Monsanto owning all the land and resources, The Sunday Guardian said.
While the goal of preserving groundwater was a commendable one, some critics argue that the logic behind the 2009 act is flawed. Rice does consume a significant amount of water, but many experts believe that Punjab’s groundwater issues are the result of broader, systemic problems in water management, rather than rice farming alone.
For instance, poor irrigation practices, over-reliance on tube wells, and inefficient water use across various sectors are factors that contribute to the depletion of groundwater in Punjab. Thus, targeting rice farming as the primary culprit and delaying its planting to address the issue may have been an overly simplistic approach, with unintended consequences for both farmers and the environment.
The latest reports tell us that the groundwater in Punjab is depleting fast and the state may have only about 17 to 18 years of groundwater left the way it is being used today.
Besides the above two articles, there is ample evidence that the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act of 2009 hasn’t achieved what it was intended to. All that this ill-conceived and hastily implemented legislation has achieved is polluting the air and choking to near death the residents of North India. The groundwater levels have not risen as was touted when implementing the act. Given the prevailing circumstances, it is best to undo this legislation and let the residents of North India breathe better air.
Author:- Ranjan “Jim” Chadha – a peripatetic mind, forever wandering the digital universe, in search & appreciation of peace, freedom, and happiness. So tune in, and turn on, but don’t drop out just yet!
The fault lies with the governments both central and state. Instead of blaming each other both should look at the basic cause of the problem which is a wrong cropping pattern and need to help the farmers diversify into other cash crops as also ensure them a fair price for their produce
The sad story of our annual run-of-the-mill toxic relationship with agriculture and the environment…
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Good cheer to all on this beautiful day!!!!!
Good luck 🙂