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Fungi tablets to tackle crop stubble burning by farmers

“Crop stubble is a major source of winter pollution in Delhi. I congratulate IARI scientists for developing a low-cost, effective technology to deal with crop stubble burning...,” said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

delhi pollution, delhi air quality, delhi air pollution, delhi aqi, delhi stubble burning, epca, curb on crop burning, delhi city newsEPCA mentioned the tasks that lay ahead for the new Commission for Air Quality Management in the NCR: action on stubble burning and bio-medical waste management in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, among others. (Representational Image)

Scientists at Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) have come up with a way to tackle crop residue burning by farmers. PUSA Decomposer is a set of four tablets made by extracting fungi strains that help the paddy straw to decompose at a much faster rate than usual, giving farmers the option to shred the straw, spray a solution containing the fungal strains, and mix it with the soil for decomposition.

Under usual circumstances, shredded, watered paddy straw, which is mixed with soil, takes at least 45 days to decompose, not giving enough time to farmers to prepare fields for the wheat crop on time. But the PUSA Decomposer will decompose it in 25 days, according to A K Singh, Director, IARI.

“Crop stubble is a major source of winter pollution in Delhi. I congratulate IARI scientists for developing a low-cost, effective technology to deal with crop stubble burning…,” said Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

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Singh said that the method will be cheap and also result in better soil quality. “Based on our experiments, the cost of employing this method will come to about Rs 300 per acre, including the cost of labour… That is not the only benefit though. When organic matter decomposes in sand, it improves the quality of soil in a way that inorganic fertilisers can’t… Since the fungi only impact dead straw, the wheat crop is not in danger,” he said.

A Delhi government team is expected to visit IARI, Pusa, on Thursday for a demonstration.

First uploaded on: 24-09-2020 at 04:36 IST
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