It’s harvest month in India and the right time to talk about crop residue

Harvest season in India symbolises new beginnings across different parts of the country and different times of the year. For example, the festive season takes different forms across the country such as Baisakhi in Northern India, Poila Boishakh in Bengal, Bihu in Assam, Gudi Padwa in Maharashtra, Onam in Kerala, Nuakhai in Orissa, Makar Sankranti (also called Pongal) in various parts of the country, and more. While food and togetherness are the main themes around which people celebrate these important days, the environment doesn’t get to revel in the festivities quite as much.?

It's crucial to clarify: burning crops isn't part of these festivities. What's torched is stubble, the remnants of crops after harvest. Rice and wheat are among the main crops reaped during these festivals. Burning stubble might seem like a convenient and inexpensive way to prepare fields for the subsequent planting season, but it wreaks havoc on air quality and soil vitality. Nonetheless, there's a significant push for farmers to embrace more sustainable methods.

Understanding crop residue?

Globally, more than 5 billion tonnes of crop residue are produced every year.? Crop leftovers act like a blanket for the soil, keeping it warm in winter and cool in summer, reducing erosion, feeding the soil with nutrients for future plants, and even providing fuel [1].?

How is crop residue typically managed?

Even after government incentives and public campaigns for sustainable use, many farmers still burn crop residue every year.

This burning? directly contributes to environmental pollution - some serious amounts of GHGs are released, causing health issues to nearby residents and microorganisms, soil degradation, and production yield reduction. Burning is more common in Asia, especially for rice crops. In fact, India burns 30% more crop residue than China and 93% more than Pakistan [5].

But if crop residues provide so many benefits, why burn them?

There are a few reasons why farmers might burn leftover crops:

• It's hard work: Picking up and dealing with crop leftovers takes time and effort, which can delay planting the subsequent crop, potentially hurting yields.
• It seems cheaper: Burning might seem like the easiest and cheapest way to get rid of the leftovers, even though it's bad for the environment. For example, a study published in Annual Review of Resource Economics showed the high cost of environmentally friendly rice straw management (instead of open burning) in northwestern India was US$125 per hectare. Farming practices to avoid residue burning costs farmers US$111 in Bangladesh and US$78 in Nepal [7] .
• Limited sustainable options: Currently, there aren't enough readily available technologies that allow farmers to use crop residue in more sustainable and alternative ways [3]. As a result, the amount of residue used beneficially depends solely on market forces like supply and demand, along with the individual farmer's cost-benefit calculations.
• Missing market mechanisms: Although technologies exist for farmers to utilise crop residue for private gain through alternative uses, there's a lack of established markets that consider the environmental costs (social costs) of burning in a farmer's decision-making process.

Even though it might seem convenient, burning crop residue is actually harmful:

• It pollutes the air: Burning releases greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming and hurt the environment. According to a study by Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), burning crop residue releases significant amounts of harmful gases into the atmosphere. This includes 149.24 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2), over 9 million tonnes of carbon monoxide (CO), 0.25 million tonnes of sulphur oxides (SOX), 1.28 million tonnes of particulate matter, and 0.07 million tonnes of black carbon [4].
• It doesn't help the soil: Burning crop residue doesn’t help the soil because it strips away valuable organic matter and nutrients, leaving the soil depleted and vulnerable to erosion [2].

The bottom line:

We need to find better ways to manage crop residue that are good for the environment and for the farmers' land.

What are we doing at altM to solve this problem?

?At altM, we reimagine the world by utilizing crop residues such as wheat straw, rice straw, and bagasse as our primary input raw materials.

We work towards a greener future using our proprietary thermocatalytic process to convert lignocellulosic agricultural residue into high-value chemicals and biomaterials, thus enabling our customers to build low-carbon footprint product lines.?

First, we fractionate agri residues, such as rice straw, into their core constituent bio-polymers - cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and silica.

Second, we upgrade those fractionated biopolymers into high-value chemicals and materials catalytically, tailored to specific industries and applications.

The resultant materials maximise the utilisation of agri residues in a cost-competitive and scalable manner in order to cater to a variety of chemical and material value chains.?

Reach out to us to know more!

Sources and References:

• [1] Management of crop residues with special reference to the on-farm utilization methods: A review
• [2] FREEZING AND THAWING | Cycles B. Sharratt, in Encyclopedia of Soils in the Environment, 2005?
• [3] Crop Residue Collection and Handing Machinery Performance: A Review ; written by Fiaz Ahmad, Aftab Khaliq, Ding Qishuo and Muhammad Sultan?
• [4] Stubble burning: A problem for the environment, agriculture and humans?
• [5] A state of the art review in crop residue burning in India: Previous knowledge, present circumstances and future strategies
• [6] List of Harvest Festivals in India?
• [7] Annual Review of Resource Economics - Economics of Crop Residue Management ; Vijesh V. Krishna and Maxwell Mkondiwa