More Punjab villages turn to crop-waste recycling amid Delhi’s severe winter pollution

Farmers in parts of Punjab are sending crop waste to recycling units instead of burning it, as efforts continue to curb the winter pollution that blankets New Delhi.

Stubble burning each year remains a major contributor to the capital’s toxic air, with smoke mixing with vehicle emissions and dust, and getting trapped at lower temperatures due to slow wind speeds.

But farmers in more than 800 villages in Punjab are now using balers to collect and transport stubble to factories that convert it into biogas, bio-fertiliser and cardboard, according to the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Punjab has around 12,000 villages, and stubble burning is also prevalent in other northern states.

“While this has led to some reduction in stubble burning, the incentivisation and awareness of such initiatives is still limited compared to the intensity of response needed to tackle the problem in a comprehensive way,” said Sunil Dahiya, founder and lead analyst at Envirocatalysts, a New Delhi-based think tank.

CII says it is supplying equipment and resources to assist farmers adopting the recycling model.

“Due to stubble burning, we are exposed to smoke … It’s not an exciting activity for us, that’s why we are stocking it and sending it to boilers to be sold,” said Dalbir Singh, a 25-year-old farmer in Balwar Kalan village in Sangrur district.

Burning stubble has long been the quickest way to clear fields between the rice harvest and wheat sowing, usually in early to mid-November.

Last week, New Delhi’s air quality index hovered around 400 in the “severe” category, prompting authorities to tighten restrictions on construction and industrial activity.

In Phaguwala village in Sangrur, 53-year-old farmer Gurnaib Singh says he has set up a factory that converts stubble into cardboard, helping reduce pollution and creating jobs for dozens of workers at his plant.

(With inputs from agencies)