Shared Economy for Crop Residue Management

Burning of crop residue especially rice straw has been an increasing problem for India’s air quality. As the pressure to increase production of crops rises, crop residue automatically becomes a by-product that farmers need to get rid of fast. With mechanised farming and rice-wheat monoculture, the prevalence of burning crop residue has become a common practice. However, the past few years has seen a lot of concentrated efforts by the Government and civil societies to tackle this problem on ground. 

What is the Cleaner Air Better Life Crop Residue Management Programme?

The Central Sector Scheme of Crop Residue Management (CRM) was launched by the Government of India in 2018, and initiatives from multiple agencies have paved the way for better implementation and improve tools availability in agrarian states. CII, leading the action from private sector, started the pilot intervention of Cleaner Air Better Life Crop Residue Management Programme in two districts of Punjab and Haryana in 2018-19. Driven by success on the field for community-level change, it has expanded to 793 villages and 13 districts of these two agrarian states to mitigate conventional practice of straw management that lead to degradation of soil and air quality. 

Principles of Shared Economy for CRM 

1. Efficient Resource Utilisation 

The main principle of the shared economy is that the needed tools for farming are used by the farmers for only a couple of days in a year. As such, centralising the tools at the level of 3-4 villages and minimising its idle time will lead to its maximum usage. 

2. Leveraging Communities and Co-operatives

This intervention leverages farmer cooperative societies that already operate tool banks and provide short-term agricultural loans to farmers. This allows community members to access necessary tools collectively while maintaining affordability. 

3. Viability Gap Fulfilment

Through private sector or CSR support, the intervention bridges the viability gaps in tool availability at the farmer cooperatives level, ensuring that the lack of tools does not become a reason for crop residue burning. 

4. Cost-Effective Access to High-Cost Equipment

By pooling resources for costly tools, the shared economy model reduces capital and maintenance expenses for individual farmers.

5. Supplementing Farmers Income 

With growing demand for new tools like super seeder, the penetration of high horsepower tractors has also increased. This allows medium and large farmers to supplement their income by providing these tools as a service. 

Cost Benefit of Shared Economy

From the research carried out by CII under CABL intervention, it was shown that 64% of the farmers did make use of the in-situ management tools through community tool banks including superseeder (69%), happyseeder (40%), MB plough (70%), mulcher (58%), smartseeder (82%) etc. 

• Under the shared economy model, in-situ management of rice straw cost less than the conventional method that isCrop Residue Burning (CRB) followed by extensive tillage. Through this method, farmers can now manage the stubble in the field by mulching the rice straw or incorporating it in the soil as opposed to burning the residues. 

• Use of technology under the shared economy model allows farmers to use machinery like Happy Seeder (HS) or Smartseeder which can sow wheat directly over the standing stubble or by creating a mulch layer in the field. This method is most cost effective with numerous co-benefits which include reduced cost of weedicide better crop yields, leading to overall reduction in the cost of cultivation for farmers. 

• Increasing demand of straw by industries and power plants has led to development of decentralised rural straw banks and leading to extensive baling in the States. Balers are designed to compress large volumes of crop residues into compact bales, making its management, storage and transportation easier. This is a relatively risk-free proposition to farmers who can plough the field immediately once the field is cleared. 

Way Forward

The success of the shared economy model in CII intervened areas is largely owing to the private sector resources that was brought under the intervention on top of the Central Government Schemes that promote in-situ management as well as ex-situ management in the states.  

However, there is a need for the government to expand and support the shared economy model in states that rely heavily on agriculture while improving the penetration of farm advisory or extension services to farmers. Enabling farmers to utilise different tools on rent as per their preferences and prevalent field conditions will not only reduce their expenditure and overhead expenses, but also lead to healthier soils, climate resilient crops and reduced groundwater needs for irrigation. When farmers look at these in-situ or ex-situ management practices as cost-effective propositions, as opposed to simply burning the stubble, there can be better adoption of these practices, leading to improved air quality and environmental benefits.

CII-ITC Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Development (CESD) anchors CII’s National Initiative Cleaner Air – Better life. The vision is to provide cleaner air and a better quality of life to every Indian citizen by involving industry leaders to take concrete steps to curb air pollution across India. The initiative is being led by dedicated group of industry leaders named India CEO Forum for Clean Air.