As the winter months near and the threat of air pollution rises again in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal urges the central government to direct the neighboring states of the NCR to mandatorily use the PUSA bio decomposer in the fields of farmers so that pollution due to stubble burning can be avoided. ‘We appeal to the central government to compel the state governments to undertake to spray off the bio decomposer across farmers ‘ fields free of cost. This is cheap and can be done by each state government. Now, there is no need to burn the stubble, everyone can be free from pollution, the chief minister said.
Last year, the government of Delhi had experimented with the use of the PUSA bio decomposer over 1935 acres of land in 39 villages across the capital in order to find a solution to the chronic issue of stubble burning. The results according to a study done by the government Development Department claimed that farmers were satisfied with the use of the bio decomposer. Farmers across the state bordering Delhi resort to burning stubble after harvesting the Khaif paddy to prepare their fields for the oncoming Rabi season. Stubble burning has been cited as one of the major reasons for the poor air quality that Delhi witnesses in the winter months.
Addressing a digital briefing in Delhi, Kejriwal said that so far farmers have been blamed for stubble burning when it is the various governments who should be held responsible for not coming up with a solution to this chronic problem. ‘ Till now, we targeted the farmers, even imposing penalties on those farmers who resort to burning stubble. What have the governments doing? The fault lies with the various governments and not with the farmers, the various governments should have provided a solution’ said Kejriwal.
The chief minister informed about the findings of WAPCOS, a central government agency which carried out an audit of the use of the PUSA bio- decomposer that the government of Delhi had experimented with in 2020, and said that the findings were very encouraging. ‘ WAPCOS spoke to 79 farmers in fifteen villages across four districts of Delhi. Sharing the details of the audit report, the chief minister said, ‘ 90% of the farmers said that their stubble decomposed within 15 to 20 days and their field was ready for the sowing of the wheat crop, instead of having to plow their fields for six to seven times, now they had to do it just once or twice, the organic carbon in the soil increased by up to 40% compared to previous levels, the nitrogen content in the soil increased by up to 24%, the bacteria content increased by up to seven times while beneficial fungus increased by up to three percent, the germination of wheat increased between 17% to 20%. Nearly half the farmers agreed that their use of fertilizers which was upto 46 kilos per acre had reduced to anything between 36 to 40 kilos per acre, production of wheat also increased by 8%’. In other words, from farmers’ satisfaction, effectively tackling the stubble, improving the soil quality, and even productivity, the PUSA bio decomposer had many positives to show.
Incidentally, the Delhi Government’s own development department had already carried out a study on the impact of the PUSA bio decomposer but when it approached the Air Quality Commission with the request that the use of bio decomposer should be made mandatory for neighboring states, the Air Quality Commission preferred a separate audit..
Over the next few days, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal will meet union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav and seek the latter’s ‘ personal intervention’ to get the states neighbouring Delhi to use the innovative solution to stubble burning.
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