How do farmers burn fields?
Flames are usually spread with a drip torch, which drips a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline. Small flames can be smothered with a flapper, which looks like a mud flap with a long rake handle attached. Running a drip torch requires some experience – the flapper, not so much.
Why did some farmers burn their crops?
Farmers in many parts of the world set fire to cultivated fields to clear stubble, weeds and waste before sowing a new crop. While this practice may be fast and economical, it is highly unsustainable, as it produces large amounts of the particle pollutant black carbon and reduces the fertility of soil.
What is farm burning?
Agricultural stubble burning produces broad area emissions of smoke, particulates, breakdown products, dioxins and associated odour. Each of these can have adverse off-site impacts if not properly managed. Burning may also involve the release of pesticides and herbicides that have been used on the crops to be burnt.
Why do farmers like stubble burning?
Mechanised harvesting leaves taller and massive crop residue as against manual harvesting, which cuts crop close to the ground and leaves much less residue. Stubble burning is a quick, cheap and efficient way to prepare soil bed for wheat, the next crop.
Can farmers burn stubble?
You should bale and cart straw from fields or chop the straw and plough it into the soil before establishing the next crop. If burning of stubble and straw is permitted, you should consult the codes of good agricultural practice for more information on how to safely burn crop residues.
What is the solution for stubble burning?
To prepare a solution of 25 litres, farmers need to add four capsules of the decomposer, along with jaggery and checkpea flour, to water. Within a week, a good layer of fungi admixture is formed. To decompose paddy stubble in one hectare, farmers need to spray 25 litres of this solution.
Is stubble burning banned?
According to some estimates, farmers in northern India burn about 23 million tonnes of paddy stubble every year. Governments have tried to stop the practice. They’ve pitched alternatives, they’ve banned it, they’ve fined farmers for continuing to do it and they’ve even thrown a few of them in jail.
How do you stop farmers burning crop stubble?
In the longer term, another way to reduce stubble burning is to replace long-duration paddy varieties with shorter duration varieties like Pusa Basmati-1509 and PR-126, which can be harvested in the third week of September itself.
What is the alternative to stubble burning?
Other alternatives These include using rice straw to generate biofuel, biogas and compost; and a tractor-mounted seeder that cuts and lifts the rice straw, drills seeds directly into the soil, and covers with the straw back as mulch.
