Crop Residue in Punjab Agriculture-Status and Constraints

With 70 per cent of net sown area under paddy in kharif season and 84.6 percent of it under wheat crop in rabi season, the crop residue is generated in huge quantities. Out of this 95 per cent of paddy straw and 25 per cent of wheat straw is burnt each year. The hazardous practice has affected health, air, road safety, soil etc. leading to massive physical as well as monetary losses. The present study has been based on primary data collected from three agri-economic zones of the state to highlight the constraints pertaining to the issue. For the state as a whole, 67.47 per cent of the total sampled farmers reported not burning the residue of the crops. Lack of buyers, shortage of time for next crop, lack of assistance by the state government and lobour shortage emerged as the major reasons for the ongoing practice. Measures like utilizing it as animal feed, subsidy on machines like ‘Happy seeder’ generating lesser amount of straw during harvesting, use in cardboard factories, power generation, compost making, new crop varieties producing lesser residue as well as lower wages to carry on manual harvesting were suggested by the sampled farmers to deal with the issue. Creating awareness among farmers about ecoloss and significance of the problem itself at various fora along with strict implementation of the law prohibiting the burning of crop residue can be of further help in handing the major concern of the state.