Delhi Govt Bets on New Bio-decomposer Innovation to Curb Stubble Burning, Winter Smog

KEY STORY

• At the Kharkhari Nahar village in the South Delhi district, agricultural extension officers of the Delhi government under the guidance of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) scientists are hard at work in a makeshift tent, methodically preparing a mixture that, when sprayed over crop residue, will decompose the stalks and stubble, etc, in approximately twenty days and also leave the fields more fertile than before.

• The setup looks very much like the provisional kitchens that spring up during weddings – large flat-bottomed pots and containers, large ladles, cardboard boxes containing ingredients, many smaller stoves, many cooks and the bustle of utensils and people.

• What is cooking here is a possible solution to the stubble burning that has plagued farmers for decades and compounded the challenge of air pollution across the national capital and northern India.

• At the heart of this promising breakthrough in the search of a cheap and viable alternative to stubble burning is the Pusa bio-decomposer capsule.

• The department of biotechnology in the IARI has been carrying out experiments over the past five years. The head of the microbiology division, Dr K Annapurna, credits her team but particularly Dr Loveleen Shukla for the breakthrough.

• “It is the research experimental result of the scientists of my division. Dr Loveleen Shukla who is the inventor of the capsule decomposer technology, and we have been working on this particular aspect for the past five years, and for the past one and a half to two years, we have come up with this decomposer capsule technology which we have validated for the past two years in different farmers’ fields in Punjab and Haryana,” says Dr Annapurna.

• The technology has been validated only after field trials in Punjab and these would continue, she says.

• “The science behind this is that this decomposer capsule is a microbial consortium of fungi; all these fungi are capable of producing enzymes which will be hydrolysing the various components in the plant cells like the lignins, celluloses and hemicelluloses,” she explains.

• Farmers are compelled to burn their crop residue primarily to clear their fields on time for the next sowing season. Dr Annapurna points out that this bio-decomposer would reduce the time for the crop residue to decompose.

Dinesh Kumar, an agricultural extension officer says, “Our officials are going from door to door, speaking to people, getting forms filled…So far the response has been good. Hope that this will be successful…In the past days when we met union environment minister and environment ministers of neighbouring states, we had appealed to them…that if other states adopt this, one can get freedom from problems that arise due to stubble burning.” Rai also points out that this is a far cheaper alternative to the subsidy that was given by the central government to wean away farmers from setting their crop residue on fire. In Delhi, only 40 farmers had come forward to avail the approximately 3 crore rupees subsidy that was provided by the central government.