Tackle stubble menace early - Hindustan Times

Tackle stubble menace early – Hindustan Times

The roots of Delhi’s impending winter pollution crisis may be sown in the verdant fields of Punjab a week from now. The state’s paddy sowing season is set to start on June 10, but the government is facing an uphill battle in convincing farmers to not use a variety of PUSA 44 seed that produces the largest amount of stubble when the crop is harvested in the autumn. 

PREMIUM
It is the government’s duty to ensure that Delhi doesn’t choke every year(HT File)

The variety is not recommended by scientists since it is considered an environmental hazard – it takes a month extra to mature and leaves a very short window between the harvesting of the kharif crop and the sowing of the winter wheat crop for the rabi season – but farmers prefer the seed because of its higher yield. The variety is banned in neighbouring Haryana, but Punjab has dithered on taking the extreme step, wary, no doubt, for political reasons.

It’s not like the hazards of PUSA 44 are not documented. A report in this newspaper said Punjab told the Centre in 2021 that PUSA 44 should not be sown and termed it an environmental hazard. The state administration even sent an action plan to the Union ministry of environment and said the state pollution board and agriculture department proposed that the sowing of the paddy variety should be stopped immediately. 

The Centre took the variety out of the seed cycle to curtail its availability. But the impact was limited; last year, around 1.2 million acres of land was under the PUSA 44 variety, largely in the Sangrur, Barnala and Mansa districts of the Malwa belt, which also contributed significant chunks of the stubble pollution that starts to choke the Capital from November. 

This newspaper has repeatedly noted that fighting winter pollution in Delhi cannot be a stopgap, ad-hoc effort of the kind that is instituted every time a toxic cloud descends on the Capital. It has to be holistic and scientific, and in place round-the-year. Therefore, it is unconscionable that governments are not doing everything they can – including banning the polluting variety or offering to compensate farmers for the difference in costs and yield – to stop the sowing of PUSA 44.

Delhi’s residents have been waiting for what seems like a lifetime for a long-term solution to the stubble problem such as pushing cultivators to diversify into other crops, or repealing a counterproductive groundwater law. But while they wait, it is the government’s duty to ensure that they don’t choke every year. In a week, it will be clear if they have failed even on that count.

Enjoy unlimited digital access with HT Premium

Subscribe Now to continue reading

freemium