Why Stubble Fires Keep Coming Back

Stubble burning has again emerged as a major contributor to air pollution in north India, especially during October–November.Despite legal restrictions, crop-residue management machines and financial incentives, the practice continues because of a combination of economic, technological and policy factors.

Why Farmers Burn Stubble

• Stubble burning involves setting fire to crop residue left after harvesting, mainly paddy straw in Punjab and Haryana.
• Farmers face a 10–15 day window between paddy harvesting and wheat sowing.
• Combine harvesters leave substantial straw in the fields, making manual clearance costly and time-consuming.
• Burning remains the quickest and cheapest method to clear fields before the next crop.

Link with Paddy–Wheat Cycle

• The practice became more widespread after the expansion of the paddy–wheat cropping system and mechanised harvesting.
• Assured procurement and Minimum Support Price (MSP) for rice and wheat encourage farmers to continue with these crops.
• Reliable procurement reduces incentives to shift towards less water-intensive alternative crops.

Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act, 2009

• The Act was introduced to address groundwater depletion caused by early paddy transplantation.
• It prohibited paddy sowing before May 10 and transplantation before June 10, aligning cultivation with the monsoon.
• However, delayed transplantation pushed harvesting into late October and early November, further reducing the time available before wheat sowing.
• This unintended consequence increased farmers’ dependence on stubble burning.

Groundwater Crisis

• Punjab’s heavy dependence on paddy has contributed to severe groundwater depletion.
• Water-intensive rice cultivation remains economically attractive because of assured procurement and electricity support.
• The cropping pattern therefore creates both water stress and residue-management problems.

Incentive Problem

• In-situ measures include Happy Seeders, Super Seeders and Rotavators that manage residue within fields.
• Such machinery can be expensive for small farmers and often remains underutilised outside the short harvesting season.
• Ex-situ measures use crop residue for bio-energy, compressed biogas and other industrial purposes.
• Transportation and collection costs make ex-situ utilisation difficult without a reliable market and logistics network.

Punjab and Haryana Approaches

• Punjab has relied largely on crop-residue management machinery and in-situ solutions.
• Haryana has supplemented machinery support with financial incentives for residue management and crop diversification.
• Both States have reported declines in farm-fire incidents, though the accuracy of these claims depends on the measurement methodology used.

Measurement Problem

• Current monitoring relies heavily on NASA’s MODIS and VIIRS polar satellites, which observe the same location only at fixed times of the day.
• Fires occurring outside satellite overpass windows may go undetected.
• Studies using multiple satellites and geostationary observations suggest that actual burning may be higher than reported.
• More accurate and continuous monitoring is therefore necessary to assess whether fire incidents are genuinely declining.

Why Penalties Alone May Not Work

• Penal action may be ineffective if farmers lack affordable and practical alternatives.
• Enforcement can also encourage under-reporting or shifting the timing of fires to avoid detection.
• A durable solution requires stronger economic incentives rather than punishment alone.

Way Forward

• Promote crop diversification away from paddy, especially towards less water-intensive crops.
• Strengthen assured markets and price support for alternative crops.
• Expand affordable access to crop-residue management machinery.
• Build biomass, compressed biogas and other ex-situ residue-use markets.
• Improve fire detection through multi-satellite and real-time monitoring systems.
• Align water, agriculture, procurement and air-pollution policies to address the problem together.

Stubble burning persists because farmers face a narrow sowing window, assured incentives for the paddy–wheat cycle, expensive residue-management options and imperfect monitoring; a lasting solution requires crop diversification, stronger incentives and better measurement.