45 farm fires in 13 days, cases see upswing; Gurdaspur tops with 11

Mohit Khanna

Patiala, April 13

As the harvesting season is picking up pace, farm fires have begun in Punjab.

The state has reported 45 farm fires from April 1 till Saturday as compared to 27 and 21 reported during the corresponding period in 2023 and 2022 respectively.

While 14,511 farm fires were reported in 2022, the state reported 11,355 farm fire incidents in 2023.

Gurdaspur topped the districts with 11 farm fires, followed by Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur which have reported nine and eight farm fires respectively.

The majority of the farm fires were reported from Hoshiarpur, Roopnagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Jalandhar, Kapurthala, Patiala, Ludhiana, SAS Nagar and Fatehgarh Sahib where the spring maize crop is cultivated.

One of the primary factors contributing to the increase in wheat residue farm fires is its diminished viability as cattle feed.

Earlier, the wheat residue was used as cattle feed, but the summer and spring maize are preferred by farmers as alternatives and the area under spring and summer maize, which is also considered a water-guzzling crop, is also increasing each year.

The spring maize crop is sown during February and summer maize in April and mature around June.

It requires nearly 25 cycles of water. It is considered a cash crop being preferred by the farmers and it is highly in demand among livestock farmers.

Experts estimate that 2.5 lakh acres were under spring maize crop in 2023.

As heavy rain is expected due to western disturbance, it may curtail the harvesting season and lead to rise in farm fires.

Adarshpal Vig, Chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), said the habit of burning anything which is waste has to be stopped. “In urban areas, we can find people setting dry leaves on fire and sometimes garbage on fire. On similar lines, there is a growing tendency of setting agriculture residue on fire. This needs to be stopped. Nature has a process of decomposing. It is slow but certainly effective. But we are turning impatient and trying to speed up the process by setting things on fire, which is unfortunate and detrimental for the environment,” said Vig.

MS Bhullar, director extension education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), has urged farmers not to set the residue on fire. “It is a manure and very important for soil health. And by setting it on fire, the farmers are causing irreparable harm to the soil,” said Bhullar and suggested that spring and summer maize should be avoided and if at all, these have to be sown, then it should be irrigated through drip irrigation which saves up to 60 per cent water.