AAKASH PROJECTAN INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDY TOWARD
CLEAN AIR, PUBLIC HEALTH, AND SUSTAINABLE
AGRICULTURE:
CASE OF CROP RESIDUE BURNINGIN NORTH INDIA

Project Leader: Sachiko HAYASHIDA

Juichi Yamagiwa (Social Ecology /Human Evolution/Anthropology)
2021 - PresentDirector-General, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature2014 – 2020 President, Kyoto University

The Research Institute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN), established in April 2001, is an interuniversity research institute promoting comprehensive research in global environmentalstudies.

RIHN Philosophy and Approach
RIHN research starts from the premise that environmental problems are rooted in human culture andsocietal values. RIHN’s goal is to seek concepts, theories and mechanisms that enhance human quality of life in direct
relation to environmental conditions and ecological processes. RIHN research therefore involves a normative dimension, as it
asks what the relationship between humanity and nature ought to be. To this end, RIHN solicits, funds, and hosts integrative
research projects investigating environmental change problems in specific settings. Research projects are undertaken byinterdisciplinary teams at RIHN, working together with partner institutions and communities in Japan and abroad.
https://www.chikyu.ac.jp/rihn_e/about.html

Background

Air Pollution in Delhi
Delhi

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20221104/k10013881401000.html"In the capital New Delhi, on the Nov. 4th, the concentration of PM2.5, an air pollutant, was30 times higher than the WHO standard in some places. Some schools are closed.

Since the 2010s, extreme air pollution has repeatedly been reported in Delhi by the mass media.
The Statesman

New Delhi, on the Nov. 4th, 2022New Delhi, on the Nov. 9th, 2016

What’s the reason of the extreme air pollution in this season?
The citizens of Delhi complain “this terrible air
pollution is caused by rice straw burning inneighbouring states after the rice harvest”
Kejriwal (Chief Minister of Delhi)
has called on neighboring states toenforce laws against burning
agricultural waste.

It is difficult to quantitatively assess theextent to which rice straw burning has
impacted air pollution in Delhi,
because most monitoring stations for air
pollutants are located in urban areas, with nodata available for rural areas.

After the questionnaire survey by Aakash in 2020
(Yang et al., paper in preparation)

WG2 Research Achievements

Background of the Problem
1858 Indian Empire

Irrigation of theIndus River

1947 Independence

Development ofwater ways,
tube wells
pumping ofgroundwater

1960s
Green Revolution

India's firsttest site

1990s
Mechanization

CombineHarvesters

Problems

Mixed farming of
wheat and cattle(Semi-arid land)

Soil deterioration

Increased production ofwheat, sugar cane andmaize

Groundwater
depletion

Establishment of wheatrice double-cropping
From Punjab to the IGPMeasures
Research and guidance
for farmers
green manure

Labour shortage

Air pollution
Extreme degradation
In Delhi

2009 Water Act
Ban on straw burning
Penalties and arrests

2010s
Severe air pollution

Straw Burning

Health effectSubsidies forHappy Seeder
Compensation

A massive amount of rice straw is burnt: ~20 Mt in Punjab and ~9 Mt in Haryana

Why do farmers burn rice straw?

Water Act in 2009
JuneMonsoon

Post monsoon

Rice Rice

Narrowwindow
Rice
Wheat
harvestMore stubbleseedingburningin an intensive, short, and“later” Nov.
period Dec.
Sep.
Oct.

Wheat
Heat WaveApr

Cut by a combine
harvester> 40 cmCut by hands

Ref. Balwinder-Singh et al. , Nature Sustainability, July 2019
Tradeoffs between groundwater conservation and air pollution from agricultural fires in northwest India

MayStructure
Agro-Economics, Cultural
IRRI-India
WG1
Geography, Anthropology andAgricultural Science
Sustainable agriculture1

Atmospheric Science andRemote Sensing
WG2
Clean air2

Behavioral changes
among community,
stakeholders andgovernment

WG3

3

HealthEpidemiology and Public
HealthWG1c: new group to survey
straw use for biofuel

Goal of the Project
Awareness ChangeThis presesntation +Prof. Kayo Ueda

Promote crop diversification by moving away from a cropping
system biased toward rice-wheat double cropping.
Crop Diversification & Biochar production

Dr. Shigeto Sudo
Explore the potential for effective use of rice straw through mixed
burning of straw and coal in thermal power plants, which has become apolicy of the central government of India starting in 2021.
Low Carbon SocietyProf. Kamal Vatta

Examination of the socio-economic advantages anddisadvantages of the various options

Encourage people to change their behavior by raising their healthawareness of air pollution based on scientific findings.

• Disseminate research findings togovernment agencies, local
communities and local
residents, and makerecommendations for new
policies and changes in daily
behavior.
• Propose specific businessmodels that will economicallyenrich local farmers.
• The goal is to provide a realistic
pathway for farmers to convert
to a sustainable form ofagriculture.

Results of Intensive campaign of the air
pollutants measurement
From September to November in 2022
(India) Delhi Univ., JNU, Panjab Univ. PGIMER, Punjab Agricultural Univ.
Guru Nanak Dev Univ., ARIES (12 researchers)(Japan) RIHN, Meteorol. Res. Inst., JAMSTEC, Kobe Univ., Nara Women’sUniv., Univ. Tokyo, Tohoku Univ. (17 researchers)

Supported by CIPT
Tanbir Singh et al., paper in preparation

The instrument for PM2.5 and pollutant gases: specially designed for the Aakash project

CUPI-G
IoT board

SIM card
Transfer data
to the internet server
via mobile phone network

Developed by Yutaka Matsumi andTomoki Nakayama

Data transmission
to Cloud server

Raspberry Pi A+ (CPU)GPS antenna30cm

Electro-chemicalsensors
Alphasense corp.
CO, NO2, NO, Ox(=O3+NO2)

30 cm

3G, 4G
mobilenetwork

Temp. and Humid.
SensorsPM2.5 sensor(Developed by Nagoya Univ. and Panasonic Corp.)

P-sensor will be demonstrated byShibata-Kagaku

Area of the observation campaign during straw burning season in 2022
Installation of devices were supported by Centers for International Projects Trust (CIPT)

32 CUPI-Gs were installedwith 8 additional small sensors (P-sensors)in the area between Punjab and Delhi

Backward trajectories at 500m height above Delhi on 01 November - 07 November 2022
Trajactories calculated by HYSPLIT

02 Nov

01 Nov

04 Nov

03 Nov

Wind Direction Changed

PM2.5

COAir over Delhi came from the North!
AQI in New Delhi
0:00 Nov. 3
AQI=620

Tanbir Singh et al., paper in preparation

24-hours
Backward trajectories

BarnalaNov. 3
Nov. 3
Khanpur Kalan

Oct.10Sangrur

Nov. 3

Nov. 3
Sonipat

JNU

Nov. 4

Oct.10Tanbir Singh et al., paper in preparation

Summary• 1. Weather conditions (e.g., wind direction) play a major role in
the worsening of air pollution in Delhi.
• 2. Although attention tends to focus on air pollution in New
Delhi, air pollution is likely to be occurring simultaneously over awide area in Northwest India.
• 3. The distribution of air pollution around New Delhi has notbeen clear due to the deployment of instruments were biased
toward the urban area. This study has clarified it is spread inwide areas.

In air pollution observation in Northwest India,
it is important to establish a observation
network by installing many instruments over awide area, including the rural areas.
The use of good instrumentation is necessary for theatmospheric observation network

Air Monitoring Instruments: Shibata Kagaku

Look Videos!
HomePage: https://aakash-rihn.org/en/

THANK YOU !