3

Tackling Air Pollution from Agricultural Residue Burning:
The Aakash Project: Challenge for Reduction of Rice-Stubble
Burning in the Indian Punjab Region
Sachiko HAYASHIDA
Research Institute for Humanity and Nature
457-4 Motoyama, Kamigamo, Kita-ku, Kyoto, 603-8047, Japan
E-mail: sachikoh@chikyu.ac.jp

Abstract
The Delhi metropolitan area experiences severe air pollution every year in late October or early November.
Corresponding to this period, post-harvest rice stubble burning is widely practiced in the surrounding states of
Punjab (India) and Haryana, and in some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh. The Research Institutefor Humanity and Nature’s (RIHN’s) Aakash Project, a cooperative project between Japan and India, has beentackling the issue of air pollution from large-scale rice stubble burning in the Indian Punjab region. The project
was launched as an RIHN full research project in April 2020 and will continue until March 2025. This project
scientifically examines the connection between stubble burning in the Punjab and severe air pollution in Delhi.
Based on this scientific understanding, we will pursue a pathway of social transformation toward clean air,public health and sustainable agriculture. We are approaching stakeholders/involved parties to raise awarenessregarding farmer/community behavior that is relevant to stubble burning and air pollution. So far, under the
project, we have successfully conducted campaign-based measurements using about 30 small air-pollution
measurement devices in the field in 2022 and clarified the linkage between stubble burning in the Punjab andsevere air pollution in Delhi. To clarify the goals of our activities, this paper focuses on the underlying issues atstake, describes the current research and findings, and discusses possible mitigation measures. At the end of the
project, we aim to make recommendations for creating a sustainable agricultural system that reduces
rice-stubble burning.
Key words: Aakash Project, agriculture system, air pollution, Green Revolution, India, stubble burning

1. Introduction: Serious Air Pollution in India
India is considered to have one of the highest
numbers of deaths from air pollution. According to theWorld Health Organization (2023), India had about 883
thousand fatalities attributable to air pollution, second
only to China in terms of numbers. There are manyindustrial sources of air pollution: the energy, industry,transport, waste and other sectors (Guttikunda et al.,2023). In many countries where agriculture is a majorindustry, agricultural waste burning can be a significant
source of air pollution. In the Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP)of India, a double cropping system has taken root, with
“Kharif” crops (mostly rice) during the monsoon season
and “Rabi” crops (mostly wheat) during the winter. The
burning of crop residues from these crops often causes
severe air pollution in the surrounding areas.
Global Environmental Research
27/2023 3-11
printed in Japan

Since the 2010s, serious air pollution episodes haverepeatedly occurred in the National Capital Territory ofDelhi (Delhi-NCT) in October and November. Schools
have often been closed and many events have beencancelled due to serious air pollution, and the impact on
the lives of citizens has become increasingly severe.
Post-harvest rice-stubble burning is widely practiced in
the surrounding states of Punjab (India) and Haryana, andin some parts of Uttar Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh
from late September to the end of November,corresponding to the period of serious air pollution in
Delhi-NCT (Sidhu et al., 1998; Samra et al., 2003; Gupta
et al., 2004; Vadrevu et al., 2011; Irwin, 2014). Here,stubble refers to the short stalks and straws left on thefield after the harvest of wheat or rice. The term “stubble
burning” is used in this paper to indicate the burning of
stubble left on the ground together with scattered pieces©2023 AIRIES4

S. HAYASHIDA

of the stalk and straw (Fig. 1). Recently, rice-stubble
burning has become more active and is suspected to berelated to the increasingly severe air pollution in
Delhi-NCT (Cusworth et al., 2018; Liu et al., 2018;
Balwinder-Singh et al., 2019; Beig et al., 2020). However,the link between stubble burning in the surrounding statesand Delhi’s air pollution has not been well-establishedscientifically and is often controversial. Previous studies
have found it difficult to quantitatively assess the extent towhich rice stubble burning has impacted air pollution in
Delhi because satellite observations of stubble burning(i.e., fires or hotspots) are often obstructed by clouds ordense fog from stubble burning, so the air pollutant
emissions from stubble burning are difficult to quantify.
More significantly, on the ground, most air pollutant
monitoring stations are located in urban areas and no data
are available for rural areas, making quantitative analysis
of air pollution in rural areas very difficult.
On the other hand, recent satellite observations haverevealed that dense smog is spreading across the Indian
Punjab (Vadrevu et al., 2011) and further eastern part of
the IGP (Kaskaoutis et al., 2014; Sarkar et al., 2018a;
2018b). The IGP is a densely populated area where humanactivities have caused severe air pollution, and there areindications that this air pollution is having a negative
impact on premature mortality (Ghude et al., 2016). If air
pollutants from stubble burning are added to this, thesituation is likely to worsen.

Fig. 1The Aakash Project was launched as a research
project at the Research Institute for Humanity and Nature(RIHN) in April 2020 to tackle the issue of air pollution
from large-scale rice-stubble burning in this region. It is acollaborative project between Japan and India, with about
30–40 researchers in each country (https://www.chikyu.
ac.jp/rihn_e/activities/project/project/10/). This projectutilizes observation data and model simulations to
examine scientifically the connection between stubble
burning in the Punjab and severe air pollution in Delhi.
Based on this scientific understanding and considering theregion’s cultural and socio-economic background and thepeople’s awareness of the negative impacts of air
pollution on their health, we will pursue a pathway ofsocial transformation toward clean air, public health andsustainable agriculture.
During the first three years of the project, humanexchange between India and Japan was almost completely
closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but various
activities were carried out with the full cooperation of themembers on the Indian side. From September toNovember 2022, we deployed about 30 small air pollution
measurement devices in an area from Punjab throughHaryana to Delhi-NCT and succeeded in clearly
demonstrating the linkage between air-pollutant emissions
due to rice-stubble burning in the Punjab and severe air
pollution in Delhi-NCT (Singh et al., 2023). In parallelwith these field measurements, we explored the root

Representational image of rice stubble burning in Punjab (taken by the author on 4 November 2018).

Tackling Air Pollution from Agricultural Residue Burningcauses of this problem through questionnaires, interviews
with local farmers and a literature review. It is well known
that the over-intensive wheat/rice double cropping systemin the Punjab region, situated in a semi-arid zone where
rice is not the staple food, has caused various
environmental problems such as groundwater depletion(Tiwari et al., 2009) and soil degradation (e.g., Graceet al., 2003; Samra et al., 2003). The Green Revolution in
the Punjab can be considered a success, in part, because it
transformed the food-poor Indian economy into a selfsufficient one. However, that success was achieved at
great environmental and social cost (Ramakrishnan, 2008).
In recent years, there has been noticeable criticism of thesuccess of the Green Revolution with regard to
groundwater depletion and soil degradation (e.g., Glaeser,1987). However, the burden on the environment now
extends not only to natural resources such as water andsoil, but also to the clean air that is essential to our lives.
This issue is an example of how the changing agricultural
system can threaten clean air, which is an essential aspectof public health and human well-being.
Under this project, several mitigation options for
reducing stubble burning are being tested in the field as
possible solutions to this problem. At the end of thisproject, its findings will be disseminated to government
agencies, communities and local residents to provide
recommendations for new policies and changes inbehavior. This paper introduces the Aakash Project
initiative and describes the air pollution problem causedby rice-stubble burning, focusing on the case of Punjab,
India. First, the circumstances of the problem aredescribed, and the root causes of the need for stubble
burning are discussed in Section 2. Then, the linkage
between stubble burning in Punjab and air pollution in
Delhi is described in Section 3, and possible solutions tothis problem are examined in Section 4. Finally, the future
prospects are described in Section 5.

2. Contextual Background of the Problem
2.1 Green Revolution and Establishment of a WheatRice Double Cropping System
The word Punjab is derived from the Persian word
panj ab, meaning “five waters.” Originally, the Punjab
region referred to the basin of the Indus River and its four
tributaries. Under its current administrative divisions, itcorresponds to the state of Punjab in Pakistan and thestates of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh on the
Indian side. The Punjab region is situated in a semi-arid
zone, and parts of the region receive little precipitation,with an annual rainfall of less than 500 mm. Althoughsome areas in the central part of the Punjab have long
been suitable for agriculture, until the 19th century, therest of the region was semi-arid and arid land unsuitablefor farming (D.M. Singh, 2018). Traditional agriculture
originally consisted of mixed farming, that is, a5

combination of cultivating wheat and raising livestock(cattle and buffalo). The British, after colonizing the
Punjab, expanded the irrigation network of canals andturned parts of the region into a vast agricultural area,
primarily in the regions of the Indus River and its
tributaries. Sugimoto and Usami (2014) analyzed thehistorical conditions that made possible the “successful
Green Revolution” in the Indian Punjab region: After the1947 secession, the Punjab region under British rule wasdivided into the western (Pakistan) and eastern (India)
partitions. Many Sikhs and Hindus who had been engaged
in agriculture in the western canal colonies migrated to
India, bringing with them knowledge of the latest
agricultural technology of the time. Furthermore, since theirrigated farmland in the western Punjab was incorporated
into Pakistan, the Indian government aggressively
developed canal irrigation. Most of the irrigation projects
promoted by the Indian government were either
improvements to facilities completed during British ruleor realizations of projects that had already been planned,
but the Indus River basin was also rich in groundwaterfrom the glaciers of the Himalayas. Since the 1950s, thesepowerful canal irrigation projects and the widespread useof tube wells have greatly increased the region’s irrigation
capacity. As a result, the irrigated area in the Punjab
region has increased significantly, leading to increased
agricultural production.
Starting in the 1960s, with the commencement of theso-called “Green Revolution,” agriculture took on acentral role in supporting food production for the
populous nation of India. In the late 1960s, newagricultural technologies were introduced, with highyielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat after the mid-1960s
and rice in the early 1970s, accompanied by expansions ofirrigation infrastructure and the massive application offertilizers and chemicals. As a result, rice and wheat
productivity in the Punjab increased dramatically (Vatta
and Budhiraja, 2021). Details of the changes in land use
in the Punjab between 1960 and 2016 are shown in Table
8.1 of Vatta and Budhiraja (2021). In 2016, most of thecultivated land was irrigated and the rate of HYVadoption reached 100%. Fertilizer inputs were 38 times
higher in 2014–2015 than in 1965–1966. From the early
1960s to 1990, the rice hectarage increased from
250,000 ha to 2 million ha. During the same period, thewheat hectarage increased from 1.5 million ha to
3.2 million ha. By 2000, more than 80% of the total
cultivated land was under rice and wheat. On the other
hand, the area under traditional crops–– such as maize,
beans, oilseeds, sugarcane and cotton–– has shrunk, andthus the crop diversification index has declined rapidly(Singh et al., 2011; Vatta and Budhiraja, 2021). The
introduction of mechanical agricultural technology, suchas tractors and combine harvesters, mitigated the demand
for labor during the busiest season between harvestingand sowing the next crop, which was another factor that

6

S. HAYASHIDA

contributed to establishing the wheat–rice cycle in theregion.
Here, the impact of government policies should also
be mentioned. In 1965, the Indian government established
the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)
and the Food Cooperation of India (FCI). These twoorganizations played critical roles in determining theprices of wheat and rice in India. The CACP
recommended a Minimum Support Price (MSP) and FCI
procured rice and wheat from farmers at the MSP. The
FCI’s purchases of rice and wheat from northwestern
India, including the Punjab, were prioritized over thosefrom other regions (Sugimoto and Usami, 2014). Thanks
to this policy, Punjabi farmers were able to profit fromrice and wheat production without the risk of a pricecollapse. Thus, the practice of double cropping of rice andwheat took root, and Punjab’s grain production steadily
increased. In 2014–2015, Punjab produced 24.2 percent of
the nation’s rice and 41.5 percent of the nation’s wheat
and contributed 8.63 million tons of rice and10.21 million tons of wheat to the national food grain poolin 2010–2011 (Vatta and Budhiraja, 2021). Punjab wasconsidered a successful example of the Green Revolution
and came to be known as the “breadbasket” of India.
However, overly intensive agricultural practices werebeginning to cause irreversible environmental damage. In
particular, it is widely known that the expansion ofcultivated land and the increased number of tube wells
have lowered the groundwater table in the Punjab region.
Rice production requires much more water than wheat
production. Since canal irrigation alone was not enough towater the expanding farmland, farmers began to installtube wells on their own. The development of tube wells

Fig. 2

was also related to the government’s electricity policy.
The introduction of tube wells was supported bygovernment policies of rural electrification and subsidies
for agricultural electricity (Sato, 2021), which were thenfollowed by the provision of free electricity from 1997
(Sarkar and Das, 2014). Expansion of tube well irrigation
was an important factor in the establishment of the current
rice–wheat double-cropping system in Punjab (Vatta andBudhiraja, 2021; Sato, 2021). As a result, the groundwaterlevel has been declining year by year, despite various
discussions and recommendations on groundwater
conservation (e.g., Kumar et al., 2005).
Furthermore, the bias toward the double cropping ofrice and wheat has resulted in the loss of certain soil
nutrients. There is also a link between the declining
groundwater table and soil degradation. Percolated
groundwater is high in salinity and prone to causing salt
damage to crops. In addition, the lowering of thegroundwater table causes physical compaction of the soil,
further degrading it. Thus, intensive agriculture with aheavy bias toward rice and wheat has been causing
serious soil degradation. Because of this, it has been noted
as early as the 1970s that yields have reached a ceilingand not increased, despite massive fertilizer inputs (Graceet al., 2003; Samra et al., 2003).
On the other hand, a survey by Singh et al., (2011)clarified that many farmers were adhering to the wheat
and rice system for the time being. Given the current
market system and the state of farming technology, thispractice appeared to be the most reliable to them in the
short term. The lack of marketing infrastructure for crops
other than wheat and rice may also help explain thepreference for the wheat–rice cropping pattern and the

Circumstances of the stubble burning problem.

Tackling Air Pollution from Agricultural Residue Burning

7

reluctance to try new cropping systems.
Despite the success of the Green Revolution in the
Punjab in terms of improved productivity, it has been thesubject of severe criticism for ecological reasons since the1970s. The most prominent criticisms are the excessive
use of groundwater, the soil degradation, the creation of a
monoculture with a bias toward rice and wheat, and theexcessive use of chemical pesticides; but in the 2000s, air
pollution from the increasingly common practice of mass
burning of rice stubble rapidly gained attention. A
schematic diagram of background factors in rice-stubble
burning is given in Fig. 2.

intensively burned during the short period in late Octoberand early November. This period corresponds to a time of
meteorological change; the winds become northwesterlies,
which carry the pollutants directly toward the Delhi-NCT
under low-temperature, stagnant conditions. It is assumed
that this is closely related to the increasing severity of air
pollution in the Delhi-NCT since the 2010s, especially inearly November. To clarify the linkage between stubble
burning and severe air pollution in Delhi, the Aakash
Project aimed to conduct local air pollutant measurements
during this period, taking into account meteorologicalconditions and the movement of air masses.

2.2 Causes of Rice-Stubble Burning
Prior to the introduction of agricultural machinery in
the 1980s, rice and wheat straw were manually cut close
to the ground during harvest. With combine harvesters,
conversely, the blades must be set high enough to prevent
them from hitting the ground, leaving long stubble with
scattered straw in the field. To get rid of this stubble,
burning was reported to have begun in the late 1980s.
Based on interviews with farmers in Punjab state, Gupta(2011; 2012) revealed that the most important factor
determining whether rice-stubble burning was practiced
was the use of combine harvesters. She noted that coarse
rice producers were considerably more likely thanbasmati-rice producers to use combine harvesters.
Basmati rice has a higher commercial value, and farmers
tend to avoid using combine harvesters for fear ofdamaging the grain. Today, harvesting, including ofbasmati rice, appears to be done almost exclusively withcombine harvesters, yet our research indicates that stubble
burning is more common in coarse rice-growing areas
than in basmati rice-growing areas. (Asada and Vatta,
2021).
Meanwhile, groundwater levels have continued tofall unabated. In 2009, the Punjab state government,
together with the Haryana state government, implemented
the Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, which prohibited
the transplanting of rice seedlings before the start of themonsoon season to conserve groundwater, thus delaying
the start of rice planting. Promulgation of the Water Act
induced important changes in the timing and manner of
rice-stubble burning. In the wheat-rice double-cropping
system, the wheat harvest must take place before the May
heat wave arrives, so farmers must finish sowing wheatby late November. After the Water Act in 2009, ricetransplanting was delayed, and, thus, so was harvesting.
As a result, the period for dealing with rice stubble wasshortened, and rice stubble has since been burned more
intensively. Satellite-borne Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor observations of fires
have significantly contributed to understanding the delayin the burning season (Sawlani et al., 2018; Jethva et al.,2018; Sembhi et al., 2020; Kant et al., 2022). Now, it iswell known that large quantities of rice stubble are

3. Linkage between Stubble Burning in the
Punjab and Air Pollution in Delhi
Generally, burning biomass like rice stubble releases
various atmospheric pollutants due to incomplete
combustion of organic matter. Secondary particulatematter known as “PM2.5” is produced from precursors
such as volatile organic carbon (VOC), nitrogen oxides(NOx), and sulfur oxides (SOx). As clarified by awell-known study of six cities in the U.S., PM2.5 poses a
prominent risk to human health (Dockery et al., 1993).
Therefore, PM2.5 is the most widely used indicator of thehealth hazards posed by air pollution. According to the
WHO guideline updated in 2021, annual average
concentrations of PM2.5 should not exceed 5 µg/m3, while
24-hour average exposures should not exceed 15 µg/m3
for more than three to four days per year. The daily
observed values in Delhi from late October to earlyNovember, however, have often indicated levels in excess
of several-hundreds µg/m3 and sometimes even
1,000 μg/m3.
The cause-and-effect relationship between stubble
burning in the Punjab region and worsening air pollutionin Delhi has not yet been established quantitatively.
Though some previous studies (Cusworth et al., 2018;
Beig et al., 2020) have conducted simulation-based
studies, it is difficult to quantitatively assess the extent towhich rice-stubble burning has impacted air pollution in
Delhi, because of the lack of air pollution monitoring
networks in rural areas. Most monitoring stations for air
pollutants are located in urban areas, with no data
available for rural areas.
In 2022, the Aakash Project conducted intensive
campaign-based air pollutant measurements during the
stubble burning season to establish the link between
stubble burning in the Punjab and air pollution in Delhi.
The target area was divided into 30 grids (~60 × 40 km).
A network of 32 compact PM2.5 and gas sensors(CUPI-Gs) and seven sensors specific to PM2.5(P-sensors) were established in rural and semi-rural areasof Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh. Somesensors were also installed in the cities of Gurgaon andinside Delhi to obtain data to compare with the data from

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S. HAYASHIDA

the source areas. The sensors were developed by project
members Y. Matsumi and T. Nakayama, with thecooperation of Panasonic Inc. (see Nakayama et al., 2018
for details on the PM2.5 sensor). The installation sites wereselected based on the prevailing northwest winds from the
Punjab to Delhi-NCT, because (as mentioned in 2.2) the
seasonal winds change direction in early November andtransport air pollutants from the Punjab to Delhi city. Near
real-time measurements were taken from September 1 toNovember 30, 2022. The uniqueness of our method lies in
the fact that many of the sensors were densely located inrural areas rather than urban areas. Our measurements
revealed that all target areas were covered by polluted air
masses, which demonstrated that Delhi’s air pollution was
not just a Delhi problem. The entire northwestern regionof India was covered by a single smog dome (Singh et al.,2023).
Local residents in the agricultural areas are also
being exposed to health problems due to the severe air
pollution. Until now, the urban-centered monitoring of air
pollution has left the people in rural areas unaware of therisks. In parallel with the air quality measurements, we
conducted a questionnaire survey of farmers living in the
Punjab in 2020, which revealed that they had little
awareness of the consequences their stubble burning was
having on Delhi-NCT. By publishing the results of themeasurements, we hope to bring about a change in the
behavior of all parties involved, recognizing not only the
impact on Delhi, but also the fact that it is the rural people
who are exposed to the greatest health risks.

4. Mitigation Options for the Stubble-burning
Problem
4.1 Increasing Crop Diversification
In Section 2, I described how the cultivation systemin the Punjab region became biased toward double
cropping of rice and wheat. The cultivation of traditional
products (e.g., pulses, maize, oilseeds, cotton, sugarcane)declined after the Green Revolution (Singh et al., 2011;
Vatta and Budhiraja, 2021), and reversing this trend, thus
reducing reliance on the rice–wheat system and increasing
crop diversification, was an attractive mitigation option.
To ensure long-term sustainability, the Indian government
needed to take corrective measures in the country’s
production system, which led to the establishment of threecommissions: the Jowl Commission in 1986, the Jowl
Commission in 2002, and the Alag Commission in 2005
(Vatta et al., 2013). However, despite therecommendations of those committees to reduce rice andwheat acreage and switch to other crops, rice and wheat
acreage increased. There are many reasons for the failureof crop diversification. The rice-wheat rotation was
clearly economically advantageous, and other crops
lagged far behind in terms of profitability (Vatta et al.,2013). For farmers rice is a low-risk operation protectedby the MSP, and there is no reason for them to convert toother crops. To promote crop diversification, it isimportant to secure markets and stabilize the prices of thealternatives.
In the Aakash Project, we are working with Lovely
Professional University (LPU) in the state of Punjab toconduct growing experiments and identify viable crops ofhigh economic value as an alternative to rice production.
In parallel, we are seeking cooperation from Japanesecompanies to discuss crops that could be purchased. In
addition, we are experimenting with the production ofbiochar from agricultural residues in LPU fields, with theaim of developing new agricultural technologies andmarkets aimed at carbon fixation.
4.2 Compensation
Farmers can use machinery to re-cut the long stubble
after harvesting, and the straw scattered throughout thefield can be used for purposes other than burning, but thisrequires hiring workers to collect and remove it from thefield. Pant (2013) recruited farmers from the southernlowland Terai region in Nepal and invited them to submit“sealed bids” for compensation to refrain from burning
for a season. He found that the median value of the bids
was around 78 US dollars (USD) per hectare, i.e., farmers
were willing to accept roughly this amount to stopburning (Pant, 2013; Irwin, 2014).
On November 7, 2019, the Supreme Court of India
ordered the governments of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar
Pradesh to pay a reward of 100 Indian Rupees (INR) per
quintal, corresponding to about 3,000 INR per acre,
within a week to farmers who stopped stubble burning in
non-basmati rice cultivation. This was in response to
severe air pollution in Delhi-NCT that had been reported
one week previously (November 8th, Tribune). During
this same period, significantly reduced visibility in the
Punjab was also reported. Conversion based on theexchange rate at the time shows a reward amount of about
73 USD per hectare, comparable to the amount suggested
by Pant (2013). When we visited the Cooperative Societyof Latala Village in the Ludhiana district of Punjab in
November 2019, farmers there indicated that most
farmers would accept this amount of compensation to stopburning. On November 9, the Punjab state government,
following a Supreme Court directive, initiated the reward
payment process. However, because of many flaws in thesystem and the occurrence of fraudulent payments, it wassoon suspended, and almost no compensation was
ultimately paid.
4.3 Subsidies for Introduction of New Machinery(In-situ Straw Management)
Paying compensation every year to stop rice-stubble
burning is not considered a sustainable measure (Irwin,2014). The central government of India believes it would
be more beneficial to introduce new types of agricultural

Tackling Air Pollution from Agricultural Residue Burning

machinery. In 2018–2019, the central government
provided significant subsidies to support farmers who
installed new agricultural machinery, such as the
Happy-Seeder, Super-Seeder and others. This policy wascalled the Central Sector Scheme for Promotion ofAgricultural
Mechanization(CSSPAM).
PunjabAgricultural University (PAU) issued a report, based oninterviews with farmers, examining the effectiveness of
the CSSPAM measures (Kumar et al., 2022). The
government provided subsidies to Punjab to install 90,000
units of agricultural machinery and to educate farmers on
the benefits of new technology for shallow incorporationof straw into soil, using new machines. However, despite
these subsidies, stubble burning has not subsided, and by
2020 straw burning was taking place in 60% of all paddy
fields in the Punjab. According to the PAU report, forfarmers to accept this new method of cultivation moretraining will be needed. At this point, CSSPAM is
certainly not a definitive solution to stubble burning, andthe situation is not expected to change drastically in thenext few years.
4.4 Ex-situ Management of Rice Straw
Ex-situ management involves taking rice straw out of
the field and using it for other purposes. Potential uses forrice straw include cattle feed, paper-making material(Singh and Arya, 2021), mulch for other crops, bedding
for garlic and mushrooms (Vatta and Budhiraja, 2021),
packaging material (Ibrahim et al., 2021), fuel for baking
bricks, and compost for fertilizer. In recent years, there
has been a growing trend to develop new technologies forreusing rice straw as a resource (Singh and Arya, 2021).
Some farmers are utilizing rice straw for mulching potatoor horticultural crops, and its use as bedding for garlic andmushrooms is popular all over India.
In the Punjab, there is little demand for rice straw as
fodder because of the abundance of wheat straw. Since
wheat straw is preferred by cattle, many farmers use it as
fodder instead of burning it, though some wheat straw isstill burned. Only a small nomadic people called “Gujjars”
uses rice straw as fodder, as it is about one-sixteenth theprice of wheat straw. Though livestock feed is scarce inIndia as a whole, it is not easy to transport straw over long
distances, and a domestic market in India is likely not apromising option.
On the other hand, expectations have been growing
in recent years for the use of rice straw as a biofuel. In
October 2021, the Ministry of Power (MoP) amended an
existing policy on biomass usage. The ministry made it
mandatory for coal-based thermal plants to use at least 5%
biomass pellets made primarily of agro-residue in energy
generation. This policy is called Mission SAMARTH(Sustainable Agrarian Mission on Use of Agro Residue in
Thermal Power Plants). Co-firing with 5%–10% biofuel
requires 76–152 mega-tons of pellets (Kamal Vatta,
private communication, 2022). Such large demand for rice9

straw would likely have a significant social impact.
Companies that collect rice straw and sell it to electric
power companies have already emerged, and there areexamples of Japanese companies supporting them. The
Aakash Project is currently working with Japanese
government officials and related companies to gather
information (see materials from the India-Japan
Environmental Week on January 12–13, 2023:
https://aakash-rihn.org/en/indiajapan-environmentweek2023/), and in the future, we would like to promote
cooperation between Japan and India for introduction oftechnologies that contribute to the effective use of ricestraw.

5. Future Prospects
The Aakash Project will continue until March 2025,
and the research results described in this review will only
be part of the total. We plan to make additional
observations at the site between September and November
2023, and simulation studies are ongoing. In addition,members of the public health team plan to conduct further
research on the attitudes of the local residents.
In solving the rice-straw-burning problem, there is no
single solution. Even if we succeed in converting ricestraw into biofuel, eliminating open stubble burningcompletely, groundwater depletion will continue as longas rice cultivation continues. Making matters worse,climate change will reduce the water storage capacity of
the Himalayan glaciers, further depleting groundwater.
Under these circumstances, it is currently necessary totake measures to prevent unnecessary groundwater
consumption as much as possible while continuing
moderate rice cultivation. Innovation through thedevelopment of new technologies is important, but at thesame time, as reported by PAU, more emphasis needs tobe placed on education to ensure farmers accept newtechnologies as they are introduced and know how to usethem properly.
Acknowledgements
This paper is based on the achievements of the
Aakash Project (Project No. 14200133), which is
supported by the Research Institute for Humanity andNature (RIHN: a constituent member of NIHU). The
intensive field campaign of 2022 was conducted withsupport from the Centers for International Projects Trust(CIPT), India. An archive of the local newspaper Tribune
was created by Dr. Haruhisa Asada, Nara Women’s
University. The author acknowledges the cooperation of
the present leader, Dr. Prabir Patra, and all members of
the Aakash Project.

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S. HAYASHIDA

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Sachiko HAYASHIDA
Sachiko Hayashida is a professor emeritus atNara Women’s University (NWU) and a former
leader of the Aakash Project at the ResearchInstitute for Humanity and Nature (RIHN),
Kyoto. As of 2024, she is a guest executive
researcher at the National Institute ofInformation and Communications Technology (NICT) where she performs
analysis of satellite-observed atmospheric chemical compositions. She isalso executive director of the Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan(RESTEC) and a board member of the JAXA subcommittee of the Cabinet
Office. She contributed to the Remote Sensing Society of Japan (RSSJ) as
its president from 2020 to 2022.

(Received 1 September 2023, Accepted 26 December 2023)