Understanding the persistence of rice residue burning in northwestern India: A mixed methods approach

Divya, Solomon; McDonald, Andrew; Barett, Christopher B; Chellattan Veettil, Prakashan; Dhillon, Buta Singh

Understanding the persistence of rice residue burning in northwestern India: A mixed methods approach

Autores

Divya, Solomon

McDonald, Andrew

Barett, Christopher B

Chellattan Veettil, Prakashan

Dhillon, Buta Singh

Editor

Elsevier

Descripción

"CONTEXT Air pollution from rice residue burning in Northwest India remains an acute environmental and public health threat despite significant and sustained public investments in new technologies. OBJECTIVE This study investigates how farmers make decisions on rice residue management in Punjab State in Northwest India and why rice residue burning persists despite increase in in situ and ex situ rice residue management options. METHODS The study uses a mixed methods approach that combines qualitative analysis of 90 semi-structured farmer interviews that account for sub-regional differences in burning, followed by a quantitative analysis using secondary and spatial data from the years 2018–22 to identify key seasonal factors that determine residue burning patterns. Using this multi-scalar mixed methods approach we identify key social, economic, technological, and environmental factors that form the basis of crop residue management decisions and residue-burning practices in the study region. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The qualitative analysis indicates that a complete shift away from burning is associated with a combination of evolving community norms discouraging the practice, machinery access along with appropriate agronomic practices, and provision of technological support services. In regions where burning persists, agronomic practices including cultivation of long duration rice and environmental factors such as temperature and rainfall around rice harvest contribute to year-to-year variation in the choice of rice residue management methods. An increase in ‘partial’ burning practices, where farmers burn loose straw was also documented and associated with the field use of in situ residue management machinery without complementary technologies. Results from the quantitative analysis confirm that the introduction of these technologies are not significantly associated with reductions in residue burning, while the growing length of rice, particularly beyond 115 days is significantly associated with increase in residue burning. The results also indicate that seasonal weather factors including temperature and rainfall as well as soil water index are significantly associated with residue burning intensity. SIGNIFICANCE Based on our results, we suggest short term interventions focused on tactical solutions including, residue monitoring along with deployment of residue collection to curb burning, medium term interventions focused on improving residue management options including developing value chains for residue and improving the technology landscape and long term shifts toward more environmentally sustainable and resilient agricultural practices including foundational changes in farm management practices and crop diversification to permanently curb residue burning practices in the region."

Palabras clave

rice, crop residue management, Stubble burning, agricultural technology, air pollution, environmental impact, agricultural practices, technology adoption, farmers, decision making, climate factors