Stubble Burning in India | 19 Sep 2025

Source: TH  

Why in News?

To address the Delhi pollution crisis, the Supreme Court directed Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to fill State Pollution Control Board vacancies within three months and urged the Union Government to impose penal measures against stubble burning.

What is Stubble Burning?

• About: It refers to the practice of setting fire to the leftover straw after harvesting crops like paddy and wheat. 
  • It is commonly used to clear paddy crop residues from fields before sowing wheat, typically between late September and early November. 
  • This practice is most prevalent in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh during this period.
• Reason for Stubble Burning: 
  • Mono-Cropping Patterns: The minimum support price (MSP) system primarily favors wheat and rice, encouraging mono-cropping patterns. 
    • As a result, farmers often resort to burning crop residues to quickly prepare their fields for the next planting season.
  • Cost-Effectiveness: It is much cheaper compared to other methods of residue disposal, such as incorporating the stubble into the soil or using machinery like balers or shredders, which require significant investment and labor.
  • Weed Management: Fire helps in eliminating weeds and their seeds present in the crop residues, reducing the need for additional herbicides. It is a simple way to control weed growth before sowing the next crop.
  • Limited Residue Management Options: There is inadequate infrastructure or awareness about alternative residue management practices, such as composting or using crop residue for bioenergy. This makes stubble burning a default practice.
  • Impact of Climate Variability: Erratic monsoons and rising temperatures delay harvesting, pushing farmers to burn stubble to meet sowing deadlines.
• Impacts:
  • Air Pollution: Stubble burning releases major air pollutants like PM10, PM2.5, NOx, methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
    • These pollutants create smog that spreads in the air and raises the risk of asthma, COPD, bronchitis, and lung cancer.
  • Greenhouse Gas Emissions: The practice contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, thereby accelerating global warming.
  • Soil Fertility Loss: Burning crop residue destroys nutrients in the soil, reducing fertility. The heat penetration also leads to loss of soil moisture and kills beneficial microbes, further degrading soil health.

What are the Challenges in Controlling Stubble Burning in India?

• Technology and Infrastructure Gaps: Standard combine harvesters leave behind 10–15 cm of stubble, which is difficult to manage without specialized equipment.
  • Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) often lack sufficient machinery, and many farmers face logistical challenges in accessing these resources.
  • The high silica content in paddy straw can damage machinery when used as feedstock, and the absence of an efficient supply chain for biomass collection and processing exacerbates the problem. 
• Policy Hurdles: Unclear definitions of stubble burning and environmental compensation, along with confusing Red Entry compliance markings, create challenges that further burden farmers.
  • Current policies often emphasize penalties over incentives, discouraging farmers from adopting eco-friendly practices.
• Economic and Funding Limitations: Limited subsidies for machinery adoption and weak frameworks for utilizing the environmental compensation fund hinder effective implementation.
• Other Barriers: There is a significant gap in training programs on sustainable alternatives to stubble burning, leading to a reliance on traditional practices.
  

What Strategies can India Adopt to Curb Stubble Burning?

• Legal Reforms: A parliamentary standing committee has proposed setting a MSP for paddy residue to reduce stubble burning, a major contributor to air pollution in Delhi. 
  • The recommendation came from the Committee on Subordinate Legislation, which reviewed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) Rules, 2023.
• Infrastructure and Logistics: Implement real-time crop mapping, forecast crop maturity, build temporary storage facilities, and support local supply chains and aggregators.
• Innovative Farming Technologies: Use tools like Microbe Pusa to turn stubble into compost within 25 days and the Happy Seeder to sow wheat without burning residue.
  • Encourage short-duration paddy varieties, standardize procurement processes, and enforce seed certification to reduce residue.
  • Convert wheat stubble into cattle fodder and recycle it for manure, paper, cardboard, biofuel, and power generation.
• Economic Support and Pricing: Provide guaranteed prices for stubble, set benchmark prices annually, and ensure returns cover collection and labor costs.
• Post-Harvest Solutions: Introduce programs similar to MGNREGA for harvesting and composting stubble, regulate residue management, and reward farmers who adopt eco-friendly practices.

Conclusion

Stubble burning remains a significant environmental and health challenge in North India, driven by crop patterns, limited alternatives, and climate variability. Combating it requires a multi-pronged approach, combining technological interventions, financial incentives, regulatory measures, and local innovations to ensure sustainable residue management, reduce air pollution, and protect soil fertility.