अनाज की पराली प्रबंधन के प्रभावी उपाय
Wheat and rice are staple food of India so they are grown in large areas. These two crops i.e. rice and wheat, play major role in our economy. After harvesting of these crops they produce a large amount of residue that remains in the field. The farmer burns the residue or this waste material on the farm. When the farmers harvest crop grains by thresher but stubbles remain in the field, for cleaning field they use to burn the stubble or when the gap between the harvesting and showing is less then stubbles are burned.
Burning leads to produce toxic gases that leads to pollute the environment and effect the health that leads to unhealthy all year-round becomes unbreathable during winter, smog, fog, where visibility is low, is due to particulate matter emissions from farm fires in Punjab, Haryana, and Western Uttar Pradesh. This contributes to the Delhi’s air pollution crisis, and short-term solutions sustain only till the skies clear up. There is no denying that the effects of seasonal paddy stubble burning are severe it causes an estimated loss of 150,000 years of healthy life annually.
Underlying stubble burning, however, is a paddy-wheat cropping system with wide-ranging effects on the region. Recently Punjab Chief Secretary Vijay Kumar Janjua assured the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) that the state will reduce the fire instances by 50 per cent in comparison with 2022. He said the government is taking step to effectively tackle air pollution.
Recently according to survey of F.A.O. by adopting a sustainable, circular, farmers in India are turning crop residues into alternative biofuels rather than burning and F.A.O is working on helping farmers to diversify their income, reduce emissions, and contribute to a zero waste world.
Why to burn the stubbles? With labour being unavailable and the time window between the harvesting of paddy and sowing of wheat is limited in kharif season, and secondly clearing the land by burning stubble is easiest option and less time consuming and less problematic and is cheapest mode and requires no implements nothing to have fire “ only a stick of a match box”
Do you know what stubble are? Remains of, unproductive parts of wheat, paddy and more agricultural crop are known as stubble. Stubble burning is yet practice intentionally. It is setting fire to the straw stubble that remains after grains, such as rice and wheat, have been harvested. In our India the rice-wheat system is most common. The rice, wheat crop is also responsible for this in U.P. M.P. Punjab, Haryana.
The stalks of rice is called stubbles and waste material of rice called Parali. Burning leads to free the field for next crop. After burning they release some oxides like nitrous oxide, Sulphur oxide, methane, carbon dioxide and they effect on the fertility of soil. They also effect on human health and cause some diseases related to lungs and kidney cancer.
It is the major constraint to increase the pollution, imbalance the ecology, loss the fertility of soil, environment and human health issues because after burning they have a source of carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, Sulphur dioxides, carbon dioxides, methane etc. Delhi, Punjab, U.P., Haryana, Bihar are states affected by pollution. Mohammad et al. 2020 reported the 63 mt burning residue produce the 90 mt carbon dioxide, 3.3 mt carbon monoxide, 0.7 mt methane etc
So, management of stubble burning is also important for our ecology, maintain the soil fertility, balance the health consequences etc. The various techniques for management of residue like parali char, happy seeder, ex- situ or in-situ management, composting, bedding purpose, mulching, biochar production, energy purpose, feeding for animals etc.
According to different studies the stubbles are not waste. They have a lot of nutrients. Do you know source leads to sink that means a stem leads to grain? This cause, a grain is fruit “ i.e digestable part consume by humans” contains protein, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, etc similarly stem of them also contain nutrients, minerals, fibres, cellulose, hemicellulose etc but in less quantity “ consumed by animals” .
Hence we should properly and appropriately use both source and sink in good manner rather than having a set of fire. So Sidhu et al. 2007 recorded that the stalks of paddy has a 38, 6, 140, 10 nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, Sulphur kg/ha. After the burning of stubbles they loss the 59000 t, 20000 t, 33000 t, 3.85 mt nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon. So, clearly the stubbles is not a waste.
Soil is a home for microorganism, when we set a fire to stubble that leads to kill and disturb microbial population on the surface of earth plant-beneficial microorganisms leads to regulatory framework, legislation, biological control, bio control, plant protection product, plant growth promotion, biostimulant, biofertilizer, microbial safety assessment. Do you think a huge fire will not disturb these activities of microorganism? Gupta et al. (2004) observed that the increase of temperature of soil upto 38-420C results to kill the microbes at 3 cm depth.
The burning also reduce the 28-72% nitrogen from soil and growth of microbe population. They reduce the 50% population of bacteria from soil. The long term burning results to reduce the nitrogen as well as organic matter from soil up to 0-15 cm. Azotobacter increase the nutrition value through burying the stubbles in soil and they take food from residue. The incorporation of material before sowing of 3-4 week to increase the yield of wheat. (Kumar et al. 2015).
Policies and Government Legislations
The Prime minister of India Narendra Modi in 2018, according to NITI aayog policy provide the 80% subsidies on machinery i.e. related to residue management provide to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh to avoid the burning. There are 11 pollution control acts in India and section 144 under to prohibit the burning is compulsory.
The Punjab government also make the strict rules and provide the machinery for farmer to control the burning. The state governments, in collaboration with the Centre, provides subsidy on mechanical implements that help tillage of the soil, so that the crop residue can be retained in the soil, adding to its fertility, or alternately, a collection of crop residue for putting it to commercial usage. Still, these implements cannot be afforded by the majority of farmers because of high cost only a small number of farmers have access to these implements at the moment.
Management of Stubbles: Effective Approaches
Used for animals as feed and bedding purpose. A company recently visited to vidisha, raisen, ares of M.P. for taking complete crop from field for the purpose of animal food in their dairy being India’s first and largest integrated dairy farm with the world most advanced technology in cow comfort, breeding, feeding, milking, and milk processing for over 3000+ cows, bhagyalaxmi dairy farms has set new standard for taking running large program in Vidisha M.P. for whole crop wheat hay and haylage, maize silage production with local farmers having large agriculture fields taking the complete crop ( green )wheat from field and rolling and forming bundles and packaging and giving money similar as a what area produce. So companies are purchasing from the farm and utilising in some ways.
1. Use in paper industries and for compost making
The straw of rice also used in industries for paper making and it is best alternative for deforestation. The papers and some mats also made from parali. The 40:60 ratio of rice and wheat residue used for paper making. (Sain 2020). Then material is used for compost making. Compost is organic manure made from breakdown of residue and waste of crop, animals. This is also responsible to cure the soil biological, chemical, physical properties of soil.
The one-hectare paddy straw produces the 3 ton of compost material and made by farmer on their farm house, used as manure in fields. The one kg of manure absorbs the large amount of urine from shed of animals. Use of Rice Residues in Paper Production: Paddy straw is also used as an ideal raw material for paper and pulp board manufacturing. The paddy straw is also being used in conjunction with wheat straw for paper production. The technology is already operational in some paper mills, which are meeting 60 % of their energy requirement through this method
2. Happy Seeder
This is new implement for controlling the residue burning. It is used in rice-wheat cropping system when the harvesting of rice then sowing of wheat by happy seeder in paddy stubbles. It cuts the stubbles of rice in field and used as a mulch. The mulch is responsible for reduce the weed growth, help in moisture conservation and save the labour requirement. It is developed by PAU, Ludhiana in 2001 and also called super straw management machine. Presently, 11000 happy seeders are used in Punjab for residue management. (NAAS, 2017).
3. Use as mulching and biochar production
Mulching is the waste material of paddy stubbles i.e. spread on land for controlling the population of weed, prevent the soil erosion, conservation of soil. The mulched crop have higher water use efficiency, increase the crop yield, and 40 % increase the root length as compare to non- mulch crop. Another used for production of biochar. It is also similar with charcoal and increase fertility of soil. The straw is used for packing, brick making and used in vegetables, fruits at transportation time.
4. Incorporation in soil
The incorporation of residue into the soil is best strategy to increase the soil fertility, organic matter and carbon content in soil. It increase the 14-30% carbon content in soil. The 14 % of rice and 9 % of wheat residue incorporate into soil in Punjab every year. Some micro-organism like Azospirullum,
5. Stubble-burry Scheme:
In order to curb stubble burning, the districts of the Punjab state with the help of Agriculture Department had started a ‘stubble-burry’ scheme for small and marginal farmers. Under the scheme, the farmers can remove paddy stubble from the main field and bury it in a pit either in their own agricultural land or wasteland.
6. Straw Decomposing Bacteria and Fungi:
Straw burning can be substituted with efficient decomposition. Microorganisms which are efficient to degrade cellulose and lignin, required for Straw decomposition. This decomposition of rice straw recovers the soil fertility by recycling the carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients back to the soil. Under both aerobic and anaerobic conditions, general microbial processes may take place. But for most soils, the aerobic pathway is of greater importance than the anaerobic one. In addition to rice straw, other agricultural wastes such as coir pith, banana sheath (dried), sugarcane trash, millets and pulse waste, cotton stubbles can be decomposed with white rot fungus (Pleurotus sp.).
7. Use of Crop Residue in Bio Thermal Power Plants:
Rice residue can also be used for generation of electricity. The thermal plant at Jalkheri, District Fatehgarh Sahib is the first Plant in India which is based on the use of Biomass i.e. renewable energy source. This plant can utilize rice husk, waste wood chips, the straw of various plants e.g. paddy, wheat, etc. for the generation of electricity. The project is providing additional income to thousands of farmers from the sale of agricultural waste as well as reducing the release of smoke and other pollutants caused by burning of wastes.
8. Use of Rice Residues for Mushroom Cultivation:
Paddy straw is also being used for the cultivation of mushrooms such as Agaricus bisporus, Volvariella volvacea, and Pleurotus spp. One kg of paddy straw yields 300, 120–150 and 600 g of these mushrooms, respectively. Paddy Straw Mushrooms (Volvariella volvacea) also called grass mushrooms are so named for their cultivation on paddy straw. In addition to paddy straw, this mushroom can be grown on a variety of agricultural wastes for preparation of the substrate such as water hyacinth, oil palm bunch waste, dried banana leaves, cotton or wood waste. Paddy straw mushroom accounts for 16 % of total production of cultivated mushroom in the world
9. Use of Rice Residues for Making Bio Gas:
Biogas production from agricultural wastes can be used as an alternative fuel to replace fossil fuels. Agricultural crop residues, such as rice straw is a chief source of lignocellulose which is required for biogas production.
10. Production of Bio-oil from Straw:
Wheat straw and rice hull-shave been and is being used for the production of Bio-oil. But, the feasibility of this technology with paddy straw needs to be assessed. Bio-oil is a high-density liquid produced from agricultural biomass through rapid pyrolysis technology. Bio-oil can be stored, pumped and transported like petroleum-based product and can be combusted directly in boilers, gas turbines and slow and medium speed diesel for heat and power applications.
11. Production of Bio-Compost:
Initiation of composting process depends upon the carbon and nitrogen ratio (C: N ratio) of 30:1 has been considered ideal for composting. To get a narrow C: N ratio (30:1), carbon and nitrogen-rich material should be mixed together. Nitrogen-rich sources are green colored waste materials like gliricidia leaves, parthenium, freshly harvested weeds; sesbania leaves whereas brown colored waste material like straw, coir dust, dried leaves and dried grasses are rich in carbon. To get a quicker result in composting, alternating layers of carbonrich material, animal dung, and nitrogen-rich material need to be heaped while making heap formation. Regular addition of bio-compost to the field improves the physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil.
12. Bio-Char:
PAU, Ludhiana has come up with an innovation to convert stubble into ‘biochar’ which would help in reducing the environmental pollution upto a great extent and would also help in increasing the fertility of the soil. Using biochar as manure would help in improving the soil health, along with 10 percent increase in the grain yield. It also leads to the improvement in the infiltration rate and water-holding capacity of the soil. Bio-char will help in improving the grain yield indirectly by improving the soil health (infiltration rate and water holding capacity of soil).
13. Ethanol Production
Wheat straw, corn stover, switch grass, and others have been looked at for ethanol production. The process first involves hydrolysis with enzymes to convert the cellulose into sugars to be fermented, much like grain ethanol production. This research topic popular in the 2010s showed that it was a possible process but it was expensive to ship such a bulky byproduct at those volumes and not a great idea from the field soils point of view. For now anyways, grain is just too cheap to consider other as byproducts.
14. Fibre technology
Spinnova and Fortum, a major European energy company, worked together to develop prototypes of clothing made of wheat straw-based fabric. Spinnova developed a technology for manufacturing cellulose-based textiles, such as rayon or viscose, without the use of harmful chemicals or waste streams. Usually, these textiles are made of wood cellulose. In the Fortum collaboration, however, wheat straw was used.
Wheat straw is agricultural waste and using it in textile would open up many possibilities for the fashion sector, and would be a huge step in a more sustainable direction. Wheat straw is a new and innovative bio-plastic that can be used as an eco-friendly alternative to petroleum based plastics. Wheat straw fibre is food safe certified, BPA free and FDA approved meaning it can be used in a range of applications.
Like traditional plastics, wheat straw is extremely lightweight and durable, making it one of several fibrous plants capable of being used as bio-plastics. But unlike plastic, wheat straw is not manufactured from fossil fuels.
Since plastic made from wheat straw is very durable and heat-resistant (it can resist temperatures up to 200 degrees Fahrenheit), it’s a great material to make mugs and cups from like this travel mug. Wheat straw plastic is also being used to create plates, cutlery and food-containers. It’s also a great way to produce single-use products since there is no need to destroy forests.
Authors:
Shivani Sharma1 and Ankit Kumar Pandey2
1Soil Science and Applied Chemistry, L.N.C.T. College, Bhopal. M.P
2Agronomist, Syngenta India Ltd, Assam, India
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