







































Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 1(2): 91–93, July 2018 

 
CONVERSATIONS 2: Air Pollution 
 

Can We Use Delhi’s Air Pollution Crisis to Improve 
Agriculture? 
 

Priya Shyamsundar  

 
Last November, some 4,000 schools closed due to a pernicious fog that 
covered Delhi and all modes of transportation into Delhi were affected. As 
my partners in this Conversation identify, this regular winter phenomenon 
is a result of many different factors. However, one source of pollution—
rice straw burning in the Indo-Gangetic plains—emerges as a particularly 
significant problem during the winter. Nearly a third of the concentration 
of small dust particles in Delhi in the winter months is attributable to 
biomass burning (Sharma and Dixit 2016). 

The Indo-Gangetic plains, covering some 10.5 million hectares, represent 
India’s bread basket (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences 2017). The 
green revolution, with its new farming practices, transformed agriculture—
for instance, Punjab, a state that covers less that 2% of the country’s land, is 
now thriving while growing nearly one-third of India’s total rice and wheat 
(Mann 2017). However, recent years have seen a decline in agricultural 
productivity, partly because of changes in climate and water. 

Given the continued reduction in water availability, the government of 
Punjab requires farmers to match their rice-planting season with the arrival 
of monsoonal rains. The time available between the harvest of rice and 
sowing of wheat is enormously limited. Thus, when it is time to clear their 
fields of rice straw to plant wheat, farmers simply light a match. Coarse rice 
has high silica content, which is why farmers do not feed it to livestock. 
Further, only seven electricity plants use rice straw for generating 62.5 MW 

 
 Lead Economist; The Nature Conservancy, 4245 N. Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA, 22203, 
USA; priya.shyamsundar@tnc.org 

Copyright © Shyamsundar 2018. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-
NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author.  

Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic 

Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007.  

ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). 

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.42  

https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v1i2.42


Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [92] 

of electricity. Punjab and its northwestern neighbouring states produce 
some 34 million tons of rice residue per year, nearly 70 per cent of which is 
burned; Punjab contributes about 65 per cent of the residue (NAAS 2017). 
In Punjab, the health costs associated with bad air from straw burning are 
estimated to be some Rs 76 million per year, or Rs 3 per ton of rice residue 
produced (Kumar et al. 2015). The smoke-filled air also spreads out into 
Delhi’s airshed, adding to its already high levels of air pollution (Liu et al. 
2017). 

A series of agricultural machines developed over the past decade offer a 
promising solution to the straw-burning challenge. In the rice–wheat 
system, a combine harvester with a super straw management system (SMS) 
can harvest rice and distribute the straw, while the Happy Seeder drills holes 
into the ground to seed the wheat. This form of conservation agriculture 
has economic returns that are comparable to other options and removes the 
need to burn straw (Gupta 2014; Sidhu et al. 2015). In addition to air 
pollution benefits, conservation agriculture using the Happy Seeder can 
potentially increase soil organic matter and reduce water use and 
greenhouse gas emission (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences 2017). 

Conservation agriculture, however, is new to farmers. It will require 
information, training, and incentives to persuade farmers to change habitual 
practices and to convince local manufacturers and service providers to 
supply Happy Seeders at scale. Krishi Vigyan Kendras have already begun 
to demonstrate the use of no-burn technologies. Such demonstration and 
training may need to be expanded and their efficacy better understood. The 
central government recently announced a subsidy package of Rs 10 billion 
to help farmers to stop burning their straw fields. The government ban on 
burning, in combination with support for sustainable farming, may well lead 
to longer-term food security.  

 

REFERENCES 

Gupta, Ridhima. 2014. “Low-Hanging Fruit in Black Carbon Mitigation: Crop 
Residue Burning in South Asia.” Climate Change Economics (Singapore) 5(4): 1-22  
https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010007814500122  

Kumar, Parmod, Surinder Kumar, and Laxmi Joshi. 2015. “Valuation of the Health 
Effects of Air Pollution from Agricultural Residue Burning.” In Socioeconomic and 
Environmental Implications of Agricultural Residue Burning: A Case Study of Punjab, India 
edited by Parmod Kumar, Surinder Kumar, and Laxmi Joshi Springer Briefs in 
Environmental Science, 35–67. New Delhi: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-
322-2014-5_3  

https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010007814500122
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2014-5_3
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2014-5_3


[93] Priya Shyamsundar 

Liu, Tianjia, Miriam E Marlier, Ruth S DeFries, Daniel M Westervelt, Karen R Xia, 
Arlene M Fiore, Loretta J Mickley, Daniel H Cusworth, and George Milly. 2017. 
“Seasonal Impact of Regional Outdoor Biomass Burning on Air Pollution in Three 
Indian Cities: Delhi, Bengaluru, and Pune.” Atmospheric Environment 172: 83–92. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.10.024  

Mann, R S. 2017. “Cropping Pattern in Punjab (1966–67 to 2014–15).” Economic 
and Political Weekly 52(3): 30–33. 

National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. 2017. Innovative Viable Solution to Rice 
Residue Burning in Rice-Wheat Cropping System through Concurrent Use of Super Straw 
Management System-fitted Combines and Turbo Happy Seeder. Policy Brief No. 2. New 
Delhi: National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. 

Sharma, Mukesh and Onkar Dikshit. 2016. “Comprehensive Study on Air Pollution 
and Green House Gases (GHGs) in Delhi (Final Report: Air Pollution 
component).” Submitted to Department of Environment Government of National 
Capital Territory of Delhi and Delhi Pollution Control Committee, Delhi. 
http://delhi.gov.in/DoIT/Environment/PDFs/Final_Report.pdf  

Sidhu, H S, Manpreet Singh, Yadvinder Singh, J Blackwell, Shiv Kumar Lohan, E 
Humphreys, M L Jat, Vicky Singh, and Sarbjeet Singh. 2015. “Development and 
Evaluation of the Turbo Happy Seeder for Sowing Wheat into Heavy Rice 
Residues in NW India.” Field Crops Research 184: 201–12. 
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2015.07.025  

 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosenv.2017.10.024
http://delhi.gov.in/DoIT/Environment/PDFs/Final_Report.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2015.07.025

