States of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh take steps to control stable burning
Both the Central and state governments of Haryana, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh have taken various measures to diversify crops as well as to reduce the use of PUSA-44 variety of paddy. The burning of paddy straw from the non-basmati variety of crops is a prime concern. Crop diversification and moving away from PUSA-44 variety with short duration high yielding varieties are part of the framework and action plan for control of stubble burning.
As per data received from the state governments of Haryana, Punjab and UP, the total amount of paddy straw generated will come down this year. The total paddy straw generation is likely to come down by 1.31 million tonnes (from 20.05 million tonnes in 2020 to 18.74 million tonnes in 2021) in Punjab; by 0.8 million tonnes (from 7.6 million tonnes in 2020 to 6.8 million tonnes in 2021) in Haryana and; by 0.09 million tonnes (from 0.75 million tonnes in 2020 to 0.67 million tonnes in 2021) in the eight NCR districts of UP this year.
The total quantity of straw generated by the respective states was 28.4 million tonnes in 2020 which is now expected to come down to 26.21 million tonnes in 2021.
The decrease in non-basmati variety is expected to be even higher. Paddy straw generation specifically from the non-basmati variety of crops is expected to decrease from 17.82 million tonnes in 2020 to 16.07 million tonnes in 2021 in Punjab and from 3.5 million tonnes in 2020 to 2.9 million tonnes in 2021 in Haryana.
The commission through a comprehensive framework had directed the respective state governments to promote short duration and early maturing varieties of crops since they can be managed quite efficiently and provide a much wider window for paddy straw management.
