Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Stubble burning in Punjab has become a recurring environmental and agricultural challenge linked to the intensive rice-wheat cropping system. While this intensive cropping system has supported food security, it has also created large volumes of paddy residue and a short turnaround period before wheat sowing. If untreated, this residue is often burned in open fields, emitting particulate matter, greenhouse gases, reducing soil fertility and organic matter levels, and leading to high levels of seasonal air pollution in the broader Indo-Gangetic Plain. The thesis offers an agroecological assessment taking into account the environmental, social-economic and policy context of stubble burning, where as the previous studies have focused on the environmental drivers and the technological alternatives to stubble burning separately, the original contribution of this study is based on first-hand qualitative evidence collected from the field of Punjab. This thesis examines sustainable stubble management strategies in Punjab, North India, across three selected districts of Punjab (Ludhiana, Sangrur and Mansa), covering villages through an agroecological lens, focusing on environmental, socio-economic and policy dimensions. The study follows a qualitative research design based on semi-structured interviews, policy document review and literature analysis. The project plan and earlier thesis chapters frame the study around soil health, air pollution, farmer decision-making, machinery access, subsidies, and institutional support.
The results show that stubble burning is not just a lack of awareness or individual behaviour. During the interviews, 27 of 30 respondents (90%) indicated that smoke emissions were a direct impact of burning, and 27 respondents (90%) indicated that the short period between paddy harvest and sowing of wheat was a significant practical problem. The respondents were 30 consisting of 18 farmers, four (4) representatives of the Custom Hiring Centres/machinery providers, four (4) agricultural extension officers and four (4) policy/institutional stakeholders interviewed in the villages of Ludhiana, Sangrur and Mansa. Although stakeholder groups broadly agreed that residue burning was driven by practical constraints rather than a simple lack of awareness, their emphasis differed. Farmers primarily described time pressure, machinery and labour constraints; machinery providers emphasised peak-season shortages; extension officers highlighted the importance of demonstrations and technical support; and policy stakeholders focused on subsidy implementation, Custom Hiring Centre capacity and institutional coordination. These findings indicate that reducing burning requires a combination of timely access to residue-management machinery, stronger extension and demonstration support, more effective implementation of subsidy programmes, and longer-term crop diversification. Among the available technologies, the Happy Seeder directly sows wheat into paddy residue while retaining it as mulch, whereas the Super Seeder incorporates paddy residue into the soil while sowing wheat. Both technologies reduce stubble burning and support timely wheat sowing. This is because respondents identified the narrow harvest-to-sowing period, machinery shortages, machinery costs, labour constraints and difficulties in accessing institutional support as important barriers to adopting alternatives. In particular, the findings suggest that improving machinery availability through Custom Hiring Centres, combining subsidies with practical training and demonstrations, and reducing market and procurement barriers to crop diversification could address several of the constraints identified by respondents.