![]() The upshot is that farmers have only between 10 and 20 days to clear their fields of the foot-long rice stalks that combine harvesters-another modern innovation-leave behind. But the wheat crop needs to be planted before mid-November as any delay in that will affect the quality of the wheat harvest. That means the rice is ready to be harvested in October and early November. ![]() The two states produce a majority of the country’s rice even though their climates are naturally too dry for paddy cultivation, which has led to increased dependence on irrigation.Īs a result, groundwater levels in those states have plummeted, prompting the government to mandate that farmers sow rice only during the monsoon season, in June and July. Pollution control boards across North India are monitoring the stubble burning, which is illegal, and imposing fines on errant farmers.įor over three decades, farmers in Punjab and Haryana have been incentivized to follow the ecologically unsustainable wheat-rice crop rotation system-a key part of the Green Revolution that, beginning in the 1970s, led to a dramatic improvement in India’s food security. But no amount of fines, court orders or government crackdowns have been able to stop this practice, simply because the farmers have no workable solution to their yearly dilemma: how to negotiate the short duration between the harvesting of rice and sowing of wheat in the same fields. It’s not legal to burn fields, and farmers are fined handsomely for doing it. But putting a stop to crop stubble burning, which contributes as much as 40 percent of the city’s air pollution in winter months, isn’t as straightforward. Last year, after pollution levels had breached all set standards, the Delhi government declared a public health emergency, closing schools, halting construction work, and grounding flights. ![]() Of the most polluted cities globally in 2019, 21 out of 30 were Indian. More than 1.67 million deaths were in India, where over 80 percent of cities struggle with unhealthy air quality. Globally, air pollution killed 6.67 million people in 2019. The two are certainly a deadly mix, increasing COVID-19 deaths by an estimated 15 percent worldwide, according to one recent study. A senior Delhi official reportedly blamed the spiraling COVID-19 cases on air pollution. As the air quality index worsened, the Indian capital also recorded its highest daily COVID-19 caseload of 8,500 on Nov 11.
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