Growers have urged the government to come up with a comprehensive plan for disposal of paddy straw rather than just banning the burning of rice stubbles under section 144 in the bid to tackle the menace of environment pollution, especially smog.

They termed such steps as cosmetics unless the farmers are provided with incentives to obtain specific machinery which could help in management of paddy straw.

Problem with farmers is that managing the rice stubble is not an easy task, especially the harvested crop through the regular combine harvesters. Already decimated due to the higher production costs and the less return of investment, farmers cannot afford residue management and go for burning instead.

Modern machinery like rotavators and disc harrows are available in the market but they are very expensive for small-to-medium farmers and cannot mix the rice stubble in the soil until it is decomposed after watering and using fertilizer which not only increases the production cost of the next crop but also delays sowing of the next crop, resulting in low yields and poor quality, observed Aamir Hayat Bhandara, a progressive farmer and environmentalist while talking to Business Recorder here on Monday.

Aamir lamented that the government slept for nine months and woke up just before October and imposed section 144 on stubble burning and brick kilns. This is a fact that brick kilns (which are among the major contributors of pollution) have always been given relaxation till November mid. Due to this; it always looks like farmers are being made the victims by the government.

He said imposing section 144 is not the solution to tackle issues like smog or air pollution. It is rightly viewed as a threat but the government should work on future policies after taking farmers on board.

At the moment the government should offer incentives and subsidies to farmers for stubble collection to maintain their production cost of the next crop, provide machinery and latest harvester like Kubota at the village level introducing rental models, identify the industry like bio-fuels, paper, packaging and energy using crop residue.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019