1- Crop Residue Management

Transcript

Namaste friends. Modern day agriculture has been made easy with the use of agriculture machines and tools. But the use of certain machines has also created some problems. The combine harvester is one such machine as it leaves behind crop residue after harvesting. Now, a lot of farmers are in a hurry to plant the next crop so they burn the crop residues and that creates a lot of problems.

Today, we will talk about crop residue management. India produces around 700 million tons of crop residue. Now, food crops like wheat, rice, maize, bajra, jowar and others contribute around 368 million tons of crop residue which comes around 54% of the overall crop residue produced. Sugarcane produces around 111 million tons of crop residue and this is 16% of the total crop residue generated.

Individually, rice produces around 154 million tons of crop residue, wheat produces 131 million tonss of crop residue. In terms of provinces, Uttar Pradesh contributes the most with 60 million tons of crop residue. Next is Punjab which produces 51 million tons of crop residue and third is Maharashtra which produces 46 million tons of residues. West Bengal produces 36 million tons and Bihar produces around 30 million tons of crop residue.

Out of the 700 million tons’ crop residue produced, around 234 million tons of crop residue is surplus. Individually, rice produces around 43.5 million tons of surplus, wheat contributes 28.4 million tons, sugarcane produces 55.7 million tons and cotton producers around 46.9 million tons of surplus.

The farmers in our country burn around a 100 million tons of crop residue in our farms which creates a lot of problems. As a result of residue burning,  greenhouse gases are emitted in the environment. Also, the beneficial microbes in the soil die and we lose soil nutrients. Additionally, there is deterioration of air quality.

Burning around 100 million tons of crop residue produces 8.7 million tons of carbon monoxide, 141.15 million tons of carbon dioxide, 0.037 million ton of Sulphur oxide, 0.23 million tons of nitrous oxide and around 1.21 million tons of particulate matter. Besides these, many other poisonous gases are also produced which pollutes our environment.

Now to manage crop residue, there are many machines available. The foremost advice given to farmers is to attach a straw management system to their combine harvester. The second most helpful machine is a Happy seeder for crop residue management. We can use the Happy seeder machine if there is a lot of crop residue in our farm and it is not possible to use a zero till machine. If the crop was cut properly then after using a baler we can use a Zero Tillage machine.

We can also use a paddy chopper. It cuts the crop and mixes it in the soil. There is another machine called reaper combiner that cuts the crop and then also binds it together. Another machine called mulcher is also a useful machine in crop residue management. There are many additional machines that are available which can facilitate the management of residue in our farm.

Crop residue can be used to produce many different products and has many beneficial uses. In India crop residue is mostly used as a fodder for livestock. But paddy straw has less quantity of crude protein and also has issues with digestibility. So if we treat the paddy straw with urea, then it increases the quantity of  crude protein and its digestibility. For 100 kg of feed, 4 kg of urea is sufficient and we can make our feed useful.

Also, these days using crop residue to produce electricity is being tested. The Punjab government has established four or five such units. But if this is useful or not is still up to debate.

Paddy and Wheat straw is also used for mushroom production. It is said that with 1 kg of residue, we can produce around 1 to1.15 kg oyster mushroom or 700 to 800-gram button mushroom.

We can also use the residue as an inert material in bio fertilizers. Now, mostly talcum powder, charcoal or fly ashis used as an inert material. Charcoal is considered the best material as it has two beneficial traits. The water holding capacity of inert material should be more than 40% and its size should be between 0.15 to 0.21 mm. If these two qualities can be created for crop residue, then we can use this as an inert material for bio fertilizers.

In addition to the above, we can also use crop residue as bio jar. We also use crop residue for mulching in vegetable production. Crop residue was successfully used to produce souvenirs by ladies in Jehanabad and these souvenirs sell for good money. Crop residue can be used in the form of business. Some Delhi based startups have used the crop residue for packaging material and plates. We can also use it in vermicomposting. Finally, in India, ethanol production is being contemplated and how ethanol can be produced using crop residue.

So there are many uses of crop residue and the main thing is that we have to make these options economical.

In the end we now look at the problems in crop residue management. The biggest problem is that if we use a combine harvester without the straw management system then it is very difficult to manage the crop residue. The second problem is the transportation cost of moving crop residue from one place to the other. Crop residue is produced in great volume and it is expensive to transport. Also, the time frame between harvest and sowing the next crop is small so many times farmers are in a hurry and they decide to burn the residue. Finally, a lot more research needs to be done so that we can make crop residue management and alternate use economical so that farmers can easily adopt it.

In the end, I would say not to burn the crop residue as it can be a very useful value added product and also an additional source of income. By doing this, we also keep our air clean.