According to data released by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute for 19-25 Oct, Madhya Pradesh has surpassed Panjab and Haryana in stubble burning incidents, recording 536 cases compared to Panjab’s 401 and Haryana’s 192. Over the last five years, Panjab has seen a significant reduction in stubble burning cases (SDW Vol 2, Issue 44, Story 6). However, on 23 Oct, the Supreme Court of India directed the union govt. to make an ‘appropriate decision’ on the Panjab govt.'s demand for approximately $144M to provide incentives to farmers to prevent stubble burning. The Center has since rejected the demand. Delhi’s AQI has worsened over the Diwali weekend, from 327 to 507 in just 12 hours. Meanwhile, farmers in Panjab face multiple challenges because with the new variety of rice PR-126, paddy yields have declined by 3 quintals per hectare. Data from the Punjab Agriculture Department indicates that yields fell from 67 to 64 quintals per hectare, costing farmers approximately $83 per hectare. The govt.’s paddy procurement under the Minimum Support Price scheme also dropped by 20%. Despite this, on 29 Oct, the union food ministry announced that the Center has procured 6.06M tonnes of paddy in Panjab out of 6.5M tonnes that arrived in mandis (grain markets) from 1 Oct to 28 Oct. An amount of $163M has been released directly to 351K farmers’ bank accounts as of 28 Oct. Rice millers are now urging the Center to review its policies and allow alternative uses for various grades of rice.
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