Crop Residue Burning: Challenges & Solutions

The ICFA report identifies several key findings: India generates roughly 500 million tonnes of crop residue annually, with rice, wheat, and sugarcane contributing about 82 percent of the burning problem. Open-field burning emits vast amounts of pollutants — especially carbon monoxide, black carbon, and volatile organic compounds — underscoring its environmental and public-health severity. Moreover, burning causes major nutrient losses (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, sulphur) from soils, degrades soil biology, and destroys useful fodder.

To address this, the report makes a number of recommendations: it calls for the promotion of in-situ mechanised residue management (e.g., happy seeders, shredders, balers) and conservation agriculture to avoid burning; it suggests turning residues into value-added products — such as bio-fuel, paper, feed, or bricks — through public-private partnerships; it urges state-specific interventions tailored to agro-ecological contexts; it encourages stronger financial support, like subsidies for machinery or linking farmers to biomass-using firms; and it highlights the need for dedicated awareness campaigns and specialized agencies to train farmers, monitor burning, and enforce policy.