NISHAN SINGH is yet to harvest the PR-122 variety of paddy on 35 out of his total 45-acre holding. Last year, he had harvested more than half of his crop by this time.
“I’ll be able to start only after Diwali (on October 24) and finish around the month-end. Last year, I had started around October 15, which has not been possible this time because of rains (in late-September and early-October). The crop is still too wet for harvesting using combines and the low temperatures isn’t allowing it to dry,” says this farmer from Margindpura village in Patti tehsil of Punjab’s Tarn Taran district
He is relatively better placed though, given that he has a Super Seeder. This tractor-drawn machine can remove the left-over paddy stubble from combine-harvesting and incorporate it into soil, while simultaneously sowing the seeds of the next wheat crop.
“I don’t know about other farmers. Without Super or Happy Seeder, they will be unable to manage the stubble. Since wheat has to be sown by the first fortnight of November, there’s little time and they will have to simply burn,” says Singh, who has already harvested Pusa-1509, an early-maturing basmati paddy variety, on his balance 10-acres. This crop was ready by the third week of September.
The reduced window between paddy harvesting and wheat sowing is likely to result in increased incidents of paddy stubble burning this time, according to experts. Delayed harvesting and the urgency to sow wheat on time would leave a majority of farmers, having no access to stubble-management machines, with only the option of setting their fields on fire.
Talwinder Singh, who is from Nauli village in Jalandhar tehsil and district, is yet to commence harvesting of the standing paddy on his 32-acre field. Balour Singh, from Fatehgarh Chhanna village in Barnala, says he will not be able to harvest his five-acre paddy crop before October 25. Santokh Singh from Malsian village in Jalandhar’s Shahkot tehsil has harvested only half of this paddy on 150 acres, which includes 100 acres of joint family-owned and the rest 50 acres of leased-in land.
None of these farmers are willing to disclose their post-harvest paddy stubble disposal plans – whether to “manage” or “burn”.
The effects of delayed harvesting can be seen from the Punjab Mandi Board’s data. During the current marketing season from October 1, only 37.76 lakh tonnes (lt) of paddy had cumulatively arrived in the state’s mandis as on October 18, with government agencies purchasing 36.41 lt out of that.
In the last two seasons (2021-22 and 2020-21), total paddy procurement from Punjab (which mostly happens between early-October and mid-November) amounted to 187.29 lt and 202.82 lt, respectively. The state government has projected overall procurement this year at 180-185 lt. Just about a fifth of that has been covered so far.
For now, the number of farm stubble fire incidents reported across Punjab (from September 15 to October 18) has been only 2,189, as against 2,446 and 6,417 for the corresponding period of the preceding two years. But that could change as paddy harvesting gathers pace – especially after Diwali.
Gurvinder Singh, director of Punjab’s agriculture department, is hopeful of no major spike in stubble burning. The state government under the Centre’s Crop Residue Management scheme had distributed nearly 40,000 of subsidised Super and Happy Seeders till last year. With another 10,000 being added this year, in addition to thousands of other machines (rotavators, mulchers, straw choppers, reversible mould board ploughs, etc), a significant part of wheat area can be sown without farmers taking recourse to paddy stubble burning, he told The Indian Express.
