Prevention of Crop Stubble Burning (Baling)
India generates about 620 million tonnes of crop residues having a great nutrient potential. At individual crop level, rice contributes the highest amount of 154 Mt gross residues followed by wheat (131 Mt). The disposal of crop residues, generated in large quantities, has become menace due to on-farm burning which, in turn, pollutes environment, causes land heating and killing of beneficial soil microorganisms and thereby reduction in productivity. The on-farm burning of crop residues has intensified in recent years due to unavailability of low cost and easily adaptable technologies for its handling and management and short time window availability between harvesting and sowing of crops. Honourable Supreme Court and National Green Tribunal has taken very serious objection to biomass burning and directed to solve the problem through technological means. Keeping in view the different agro-climatic zones, customized engineering solutions, coupled with bio-inoculants along with suitable package of practices are needed to meet the demands of the local farmers to recycle agri-residue into quality compost, nutri-rich animal feed and cheap rural energy source. In-situ and ex-situ management of crop residues has remained a major challenge due to lack of easily adaptable and affordable mechanical and microbiological technologies at farmers field.
The need of the hour is to prevent the burning of crop residues to conserve the environment, health & wellbeing of people and farm land.
Straw Management (Prevention of Crop Stubble burning) can be done in 3 ways.
In-situ management: In-situ management involves incorporating the standing crop stubble into the soil for its decomposition inside the soil for increasing soil fertility by adding nutrients to soil. This method is resisted by farmers because it is time consuming & they have to wait to sow their next crop. However, in our CSR Project with IARI, CNH Industrial is working on expediting the decomposition process by using enzymes.
Ex-situ management: This involves raking & laying of stubbles in a line on the soil. Later these are removed by baler & baled into bales to be sold off to power plants for power generation or pellet making
Animal Feed Block: Crop Stubble/straw can be used for making animal feed.
CNH Industrial’s Intervention: CNH Industrial has undertaken projects to showcase all 3 methods through its partnerships with Dept. of Agriculture of various State Govt. & ICAR- IARI. Through its New Holland Agriculture brand, the Company is the market leader in crop residue management with its advanced solutions including Gyro Rakes and Balers, providing a sustainable solution for energy generation through renewable sources in India and curbing environmental pollution by utilizing the surplus crop residue otherwise burnt in fields. Each New Holland BC 5060 square baler can help produce electricity for 950 rural homes for one year in one paddy season. New Holland is committed to its quest of finding effective and sustainable solutions for straw management for prevention of Crop Stubble Burning.
In Collaboration with Department of Agriculture of different State Governments by adopting villages or Agricultural Universities
CNH Industrial through its CSR intervention is responsible for donating equipment & providing support to run the Project to support the Government initiative to prevent burning of crop/ straw residue, creating awareness of the benefits of straw management solutions, explaining the possible revenue streams/ options available on baler output (straw baled), creating awareness on environment hazards under its CSR Initiatives.
Locations of the project- Kallar Majri, Patiala, Punjab, Dangra, Fatehabad & Pardhana, Panipat in Haryana, Bhandara in Maharashtra, Thanoud in Chhattisgarh & Pantnagar Agricultural University
Benefit every year- Till date, in total, 6148 tons of paddy straw have been baled rather than burnt, cutting CO2 emissions by 9314 tons