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Supported by grants from EY Foundation, the IPS Foundation will conduct awareness roadshows and trainings for farmers including the use of Super Straw Management System
Given that the air quality in north India, particularly in the National Capital Region (NCR) has become a major issue over the last few years, India ParyavaranSahayak (IPS) Foundation, and EY Foundation have decided to collaborate on raising awareness about different cost effective and convenient alternative methods to ‘crop burning’.
Supported by grants from EY Foundation, the IPS Foundation will conduct awareness roadshows and trainings for farmers including the use of Super Straw Management System (SMS) fitted Harvester Combines and Happy Seeders, which enable farmers to sow the next crop without clearing the standing stubble. This method of crop stubble management not only allows timely sowing of new crop, but also saves water, improves soil quality and increases the overall yield of wheat by 2-4%.
A study by The Lancet Commission on pollution and health attributed over 2.5 million deaths to ambient air pollution in 2015, making India home to maximum number of fatalities caused due to bad air. The study highlighted respiratory disorders as the primary cause for majority of deaths, followed by accidents caused by low-visibility and deterioration in the general quality of life.
With a combination of smoke, dust, fog and other pollutants, the situation is worsened during October and November, due to a common practice of ‘crop burning’, prevalent in several North Indian states.
Estimates from the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences suggest that nearly 23 million tonnes of rice residue is burnt every year, releasing 34 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
According to a study published by Harvard, the pollution in Delhi is 20 times higher during the peak ‘crop burning’ season, and can contribute to almost half of all pollution in Delhi.
To improve the air quality across the region, several state governments have announced a ban on ‘crop burning’. In February 2018, the Government of Punjab mandated the use of alternate methods to manage crop residue, which includes the usage of Super Straw Management Systems. However lack of awareness among farmers about such alternative, environment-friendly methods continues to be a challenge.
“For any solution to be sustainable and widely accepted, it is critical for the stakeholders to see the merit in adopting it. While the solution is fairly straightforward and addresses key concerns such as accessibility and cost, a key objective of this initiative is to increase the rate of adoption, and that is something we look forward to as the season approaches,” said Ritesh Bhatia, CEO, India ParyavaranSahayak Foundation. The cost of using a Straw Management System and Happy Seeder is comparable to the overall costs incurred by farmers in preparing the land after burning the crop residue.
In the first phase, IPS Foundation will reach farmers through roadshows, community meetings, product demonstrations, farm visits and technical trainings in over 300 villages across five districts in Punjab including Moga, Sangrur, Ropar, Barnala and Patiala, which contribute to close to 65% of all crop residue in the region. This will cover approximately 33,100 hectares and manage about 1.8 lakh tons of stubble. The IPS Foundation estimates that use of SMS fitted systems is likely to reduce CO2 emissions by about 3 lakh tons over the next two years and save up to 48 million litres of water.
“At EY, protecting the environment is an important pillar of our commitment to Corporate Responsibility. Pollution caused due to crop residue burning across India has been a cause for concern for several years and needs immediate attention. Our support, extended to the India ParyavaranSahayak Foundation, is aimed at encouraging economically viable, easy to adopt and scalable solutions for the farmer,” said Sridhar Iyer, National Director, EY Foundation India.
Source: Economics Times
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