Farmers forced to burn stubble, troubled by government and market failure

According to details published in The Hindu newspaper, a new study has been conducted by IIM Amritsar regarding the problem of stubble burning. This study covers details published in the research journal 'Journal of Macromarketing' under the title 'Governmentality and Marketing System Failure: The Case of Stubble Burning and Climate Change in Neoliberal India'. This research has been prepared by S. R. Jagdale and J. M. Shaikh.

As soon as the month of November begins, the Indo-Gangetic plain region gets enveloped in a thick blanket of pollution. During this period, the four-month monsoon winds stop and temperatures drop. Year-round pollutants such as vehicles, power plants, construction dust, and other suspended matter remain trapped in the atmosphere due to the formation of an 'inversion layer'. These pollutants are not dispersed by strong winds at the upper layers of the atmosphere.

In this situation, the burning of paddy residue, i.e., rice chaff, by farmers in Punjab and to some extent in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh makes the weather even more toxic. The air quality of Delhi and other cities of North India deteriorates extremely due to this. Farmers burn stubble in the months of October and November to prepare the land for sowing rabi wheat crops in the fields, because this method proves to be the cheapest for them.

This phenomenon of stubble burning is not merely an agricultural issue, but a serious problem linked with economic and policy structural flaws.

Various social and economic issues as well as the impacts of government policies are studied by this institution.