THIS is the season when farmers resort to setting crop residue afire. This practice is mostly blamed for causing smog, resulting in extreme difficulties in neighbouring areas. Also, it is hazardous in terms of low visibility on the roads that causes accidents.
The relevant authorities need to wake up and help out the farmers with safe alternative measures to do the job. There are two common and easy ways to handle the crop residue. The first method is tillage prior to planting when the residue is incorporated into the soil.
Another modern farming practice is reduced tillage or no-till farming, where crop residue is left on the surface and planting is carried out without soil tillage.
Summarising the best and safe alternatives to stubble burning, there should be use of mechanical implements for land preparation to incorporate the crop residue in the soil. There should also be use of zero-till seed drill for landpreparation and directly sowing the seeds in the stubble of previous crops. Balers should be used to collect and compress the residue into compact bales. These measures cannot be carried out without due help from the government.
