Recently, NITI Aayog released a report of Task Force on Biomass Management constituted under ‘Cleaner Air Better Life’ initiative, an initiative for ‘improving the air quality of Delhi-NCR.

Recommendation of Task Force

• Immediate Action - Financial support to farmers for in-situ treatment of paddy-straw using DBT system.
• Medium and Long-Term Actions –
      o Create ‘Impact Fund’ for air pollution - to support clean technologies and link it with the National Clean Energy Fund.
      o Upscaling technologies with service-based shared economy and process-based incentives - a shared economy could be created to cater the demand          of all the farmers affordably for required machinery and it is also recommended that incentives are linked to performance in long-term to promote                  efficient utilisation of infrastructure.
      o Rewarding and monitoring at local level - with advanced remote sensing data and local monitoring by Block Development Officers (BDOs). Further, a          financial reward for panchayats is suggested in order to catalyse the vision of zero-burning in rural areas.
      o Regulatory support towards ex-situ treatment - this is equally desirable given the limitations to ploughing all the straw back into the soil.
      o Awareness tools - this includes dedicated awareness campaigns involving State Agriculture Departments and Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs) and                recognition to farmers already following such practices

Solutions Proposed

• Ploughing the residue back into the field or in-situ approaches

1. Residue retention as straw mulch - Mulch can increase yield, water use efficiency, and profitability, while decreasing weed pressure.
2. Residue incorporation - Wet mixing of chopped straw helps conserving nitrogen and other nutrients contained in the straw.

• Extraction and usage for other purposes or ex-situ approaches -

1. Pyrolysis (Biochar) - Biomass is converted to biochar by pyrolysis (burning in the complete absence or limited presence of air) which can then be used as a soil conditioner, char briquettes and other value-added products such as home garden fertilizer.
2. Briquetting and/or Palletization - For the purpose of efficiently using straw as fuel and to ease its transportation over larger distances, biomass can be transformed into briquettes and/or pellets of regular shape. These are easier to use, convenient to transport and store, and have higher calorific value (heat value).

• Briquettes have good potential of being co-fired into industrial boilers along with coal and other high calorific crop residues. Pellets have good potential for being used as fuel in cooking stoves and heating applications in domestic as well as industry.

 Other steps include - conversion to BioCNG, bio-ethanol and other liquid fuels, setting up bio-power plant and dry fermentation biogas plant.

Above steps will ensure management of biomass while also augmenting farmer's income. This will also curb stubble burning thus controlling smogs in national capital.