Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday wrote to Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar recommending the scaling up of the bio-decomposer technique developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) to deal with the issue of stubble burning in North Indian States.
Stating that while he was aware that it may seem late, the Delhi government had recently come in contact with scientists from the IRAI, Pusa, who had presented an innovative decomposer technique to deal with the issue of crop stubble burning after several years of research.
“They have created a chemical which when sprayed on fields with crop stubble, ensures speedy bio-decomposition of the stubble and its conversion into fertiliser. Farmers will not need to burn stubble anymore,” he stated.
“The scientists believe that burning stubble also damages nutrients in the soil which negatively impacts the fertility of the soil but if this chemical is used, then not only will it lead to lesser use of fertiliser, but also increase its quality and productivity,” he also said.
This, Mr. Kejriwal wrote, could be a good solution to the issue of air pollution caused due to stubble burning and that both the Central government and State governments could consider the technique for use.
‘Cost-effective’
“With the technique developed by the IARI, the expense which farmers would need to bear would be negligible,” the Chief Minister wrote.
“We will utilise this technique on a large scale in Delhi this year and ensure that no stubble burning occurs. I know there isn’t much time, but if we try we can all come together to encourage more and more farmers to use this technique,” he added.
