Incentivizing alternatives to agricultural waste burning in Northern India: trust, awareness, and access as barriers to adoption

Abstract

The burning of agricultural residue from previous season’s rice crop, primarily in the states of Punjab and Haryana, is a key contributor to poor air quality during the winter across North India. Air quality can deteriorate to catastrophic levels during the Agricultural Waste Burning (AWB) season in October–November, when fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations can exceed WHO daily maxima over a sustained period by an order of magnitude or more, over a large swathe of the Indo-Gangetic plain. Over the past decade, attempts by Indian governments to change farmer behavior by incentivizing the use of novel technologies for managing rice residue without burning it have been met with little success. This paper uses farmer and expert interviews, as well as secondary data, to examine the barriers to adoption of these technologies in the state of Punjab. We analyze how operational factors (such as farm size, timing, technology availability, and choice) affect a farmers’ decision to choose (or not) a rice residue management practice. We develop a financial model for analyzing the costs of residue management technologies that are consistent with the decision-making process of both small and large farmers. We find that more sustainable residue management practices can be cost effective relative to residue burn, especially when existing subsidies are applied. However, difficulties in accessing technological alternatives to AWB and subsidies for their use and a lack of trust in the government’s ability to deliver the full benefits of subsidies, all contribute the low adoption of technological alternatives to AWB.