ICAR gives Rs 4 cr to HAU to check stubble-burning

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has sanctioned Rs 4 crore to Chaudhary Charan Singh Haryana Agriculture (HAU) University to check environment pollution owing to burning of crop residue.

About Project :

• Recently that the university had come up with an action plan to deal with the stubble burning issue that had been a cause of worry for the government.
• The project will be implemented through Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) of the university located in Ambala, Bhiwani, Fatehabad, Hisar, Jind, Jhajjar, Karnal, Kaithal, Kurukshetra, Panipat, Rohtak, Sonepat, Sirsa and Yamunanagar districts.
• Each of these KVKs will adopt two villages for making them pollution-free.
• The university will purchase machines that will help in crop residue management.
• For each KVK, two happy seeder, paddy straw chopper / shredder / mulcher, sharb master / cutter-cum-spreader, one each of reversible mould board plough and zero till drill will be purchased.
• These machines will be installed on custom hiring centers in the adopted villages where scientists will organise 100 demonstrations for the farmers about residue management techniques during the rabi season crops.
• Two five-day courses would be organised in each district with 25 farmers in each group.Rural women, school and college students will also be made aware about straw management by organising essay, painting and debate competitions.

Background :

• There are 20 districts in Haryana which cultivate sugarcane and paddy and the straw burning problem is the most serious in these districts.
• Haryana produces about six million tonnes of straw in about 13 lakh hectares of agriculture land under crops.
• 28 lakh metric tonnes of crop residues are burnt every year in Haryana.
• The burning of one tonne of paddy straw releases 3 kg particulate matter, 60 kg CO, 1460 kg CO2, 199 kg ash and 2 kg SO2.
• One ton of paddy straw contains approximately 5.5 kg N, 2.3 kg P2O5, 25 kg K2O, 1.2 kg S, 50-70% of micro-nutrients absorbed by rice and 400 kg of carbon, which are lost due to burning of paddy straw. Apart from loss of nutrients, some of the soil properties like soil temperature, pH, moisture, available phosphorus and soil organic matter are greatly affected due to burning.
• Nonetheless, time available between the rice harvesting and wheat sowing is very narrow and in the range of 20-30 days. It is envisaged that appropriate strategies for in situ crop residue management should be planned for effective implementation to enable zero burning.

Analysis :

• Ethanol and Biogas (biofuel) will be prepared from the crop residue at the laboratory level.
• Briquettes of paddy residue can be used in brick kilns while its pallets can meet the household needs of fuel.
• Paddy straw will also be used for making vermi compost. In addition, organic manure will be made from it by thawing with the help of micro-organisms.
• By heating the paddy straw at high temperatures, biochar (a type of raw coal) will be made by the pyrolysis method.
• It will also be used for growing mushrooms and in the animal feed by finishing it with machines.

By: Harman Sandhu