What is in news : The Delhi government, in a move to provide an alternative to stubble burning and combat air pollution, will start its campaign to use bio-decomposer – PUSA solution on farmlands under its winter action plan.

About :

• The decomposer was sprayed last year too and it saw a success
• It is a common practice in October and November across North West India, but primarily in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh to quickly clear crop residue from their fields before planting the rabi wheat crop.
• To tackle the issue ‘Pusa Decomposer’ capsule has been developed by Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI).
• ‘Pusa Decomposer’ is essentially a fungi-based liquid solution that can soften hard stubble to the extent that it can be easily mixed with soil in the field to act as compost.
• This would then rule out the need to burn the stubble, and also help in retaining the essential microbes and nutrients in soil that are otherwise damaged when the residue is burned.

How

• A liquid formulation is formed using decomposer capsules and fermenting it over 8-10 days and then spraying the mixture on fields with crop stubble to ensure speedy bio-decomposition of the stubble.
• The farmers can prepare 25 litre of liquid mixture with 4 capsules, jaggery and chickpea flour. The mixture is sufficient to cover 1 hectare of land.
• It takes around 20 days for the degradation process to be completed.

Benefit

• Improves the fertility and productivity of the soil as the stubble works as manure and compost for the crops and lesser fertiliser consumption is required in the future.
• It is an efficient and effective, cheaper, doable and practical technique to stop stubble burning.
• It is an eco-friendly and environmentally useful technology.