Nitin Gadkari announced on Wednesday that India’s aviation industry is set to incorporate 20% bio-aviation fuel within the next five years; a big step towards sustainable development!
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari announced in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday that India’s aviation industry is set to incorporate 20% bio-aviation fuel within the next five years. This initiative aims to leverage biofuels derived from agricultural stubble, benefiting farmers and promoting sustainable energy practices.
Stubble Burning: A Subsidy Issue?
The Indian state of Punjab has two growing seasons: one from May to September and another from November to April. Many farmers rotate between crops, planting rice in May and wheat in November. In order to quickly prepare their fields for the wheat crop, many farmers simply burn leftover plant debris after harvesting rice.
Every year, Punjab rice farms collectively burn about 7 to 8 million metric tons of leftover plant debris in October and November.
Gadkari’s Initiative: A War on Air Pollution
Hazy skies have become an autumn tradition of sorts for the residents of several states in northern India. Each October and November, a pall of smoke hangs over large swaths of the Indo-Gangetic Plain.
Stubble burning is a relatively new phenomenon in northern India. Historically, farmers harvested and plowed fields manually, tilling plant debris back into the soil. When mechanized harvesting (using combines) started to become popular in the 1980s, burning became common because the machines leave stalks that are several inches tall.
Gadkari Targets on Politics of Stubble Burning
It seems that the entire government machinery, both central and state, is busy to ensure Punjab farmers can grow paddy. Free electricity, subsidised fertilisers and ever-increasing MSP supporting already rice eating states would be more equitable and effective, and will reduce the need for storage and transportation of grains.
It’s time to address the stubble burning problem not with more government sops to paddy, but by encouraging farmers in Punjab and Haryana to shift to different crops. Orchards and horticulture are also high value crops of short and long duration.
Crop Diversification Programme is already in place since 2013-14 in favour of alternative crops like pulses, oilseeds, maize, cotton, kinu, guava, mango, pears, horticulture and agroforestry plantation. Crop diversification is generally done in order to minimise failure risk, to address declining soil fertility and depleting water table. It mitigates external shocks as well as consumer demands changing in favour of non-staple food due to increase in income, and higher competition in staples production in other states.
Gadkari Bats for Biofuel Innovation
The Central Road Research Institute (CRRI) in New Delhi has collaborated with the Indian Institute of Petroleum (IIP) in Dehradun. They have developed bio-bitumen from crop stubble. This innovation transforms farmers into ‘Urja Daata’ (energy providers), according to the minister.
https://x.com/OfficeOfNG/status/1821086776263377342
“OUR FARMERS ARE NO LONGER JUST ‘ANNA DAATA’ (FOOD PROVIDERS); THEY ARE NOW ‘URJA DAATA’ (ENERGY PROVIDERS), ‘BITUMEN DAATA’ (BITUMEN PROVIDERS), AND ‘HAWA INDHAN’ (AIR, FUEL PROVIDERS),” GADKARI ADDED.
The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) is considering a trial on the Jorabat-Shillong section of NH-40.
The envisaged benefits of bio-bitumen include reducing bitumen imports, lowering greenhouse gas emissions and providing revenue. Farmers and small to medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) will generate more capital as an outcome.
