Farmers of the integrated Karimnagar district, which has emerged as rice bowl of Telangana State with record paddy production, have started burning the paddy stubble to ready their fields for sowing during this rabi season.
Throughout the district, burning paddy stubble has become a big cause of concern with the increasing air pollution. People coming for morning walks are feeling uneasy with the smoke, which is also leading to respiratory problems.
During the olden days, farmers used to deploy manpower for harvesting paddy and used the straw as fodder for the cattle, which was abundant. With the mechanisation of farm activities, farmers have shifted to harvesting paddy through harvesters. But, the harvesters do not cut the paddy from the ground and leave about 15 inches of straw (stem) above the ground.
Incidentally, the paddy straw harvested through harvesters is not usable and the cattle do not eat the fodder cut by harvesters. As there is no other way to dispose of the paddy straw, the farmers are resorting to burning of paddy fields after harvesting the crop and causing severe air pollution in the villages.
“We know very well that the agricultural land would lose its fertility and important micro-organisms and earthworms etc would perish in the fire following the burning. But, there is no other way to dispose of the paddy straw and the district agricultural officials are also not informing the farmers about the ill-effects of burning the paddy fields,” said Venkat Reddy, a farmer from Veenavanka mandal.
He suggested that the government should supply paddy cutters on subsidy to the farmers so that they can secure the paddy straw and convert it into fodder bundles and use the same for the cattle. “If we want to remove paddy straws manually from the fields, we have to deploy five labourers per acre and it would burden the farmer by ₹ 2,500 to ₹ 3,000 per acre,” he said. In order to avoid additional cost on the farm activities, the farmers are merely burning the paddy straw.
However, the agricultural officials say that they are asking the farmers not to burn the paddy fields after the completion of harvesting. The officials are planning a poster campaign and meetings against the burning of any crop from the next khariff season and to educate the farmers about the ill-effects of burning the crop, such as deficient rainfall due to pollution, loss of soil fertility, air pollution etc.
