Crop Residue Burning: Issue and Management for Climate-Smart Agriculture in NCR Region, India

Abstract

Today India enjoys the second position worldwide in agricultural output and as well as plays a significant role in the overall socio-economic construction of India too. There is no doubt that intensive agriculture also plays a significant role in climate change over time. Today climate change becomes the major concern all over the globe. The main cause of climate change is the various anthropogenic activities, in these agricultural Crop Residue Burning (CRB) of rice and wheat crops has been identified as a major reason for climate change. This unwise practice as it leads to severe air pollution and emits traces of carbon dioxide, methane, carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and particulates which affect causing various respiratory and other health problems along with as a regional polluter as per various studies. In addition, it causes the loss of vital nutrients from the soil resulting in the loss of fertility and unviable for agriculture in the long run. Along with this CRB create visibility problems in vehicle driving which result in many road accidents every year. In a recent study it is estimated that India annually emissions of 824 Gg of Particulate Matter (PM2.5), 58 Gg of Elemental Carbon (EC) and 239 Gg of Organic Carbon (OC). Additionally, 211 Tg of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O) were also added to the atmosphere. In this regarding Punjab and Haryana are the major contributor to air pollution due to residue burning. These two states contribute to 48 percent of the total emission due to paddy and wheat straw burning across India. Now the time has occurred to tackle this noxious practice with best management practices and capacity building of the farmer community to conserve the climate for the sustainable development of agriculture and the human race in developing country like India. Hence, an attempt has been made in this paper is to describe the current status and available alternative management practices like in situ agronomic management, new machineries viz., zero drill, happy seeder, straw baler as well as capacity building of farmer community for crop residue to minimize the climate change and soil infertility for sustainable on long-run basis.