Agricultural Subsidies & Air Pollution

IMPACT OF Agricultural Subsidies ON Air Pollution 

What is the issue? 

 Our current system of subsidies is a big reason for air pollution.

 So, some changes could be made in the subsidies of the power, fertilizer and procurement fronts.

What is the situation? 

 People in Delhi and Indo-Gangetic Plain are choking due to air pollution.

 As winter dawns, the wind slows, temperatures drop, and suspended particulate matter (PM) accumulates.

 The high pollution in Delhi and its surrounding is due to the congested traffic, dust, construction, waste

burning, etc,

 It gets a top-up from paddy-stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh.

What contributes to air pollution? 

 Agriculture’s contribution to air pollution runs even deeper than what happens between crop seasons.

 Atmospheric ammonia comes from fertiliser use, animal husbandry, and other agricultural practices.

 This combined with emissions from power plants, transportation, and other fossil fuel burning form fine

particles.

 Agriculture is a victim of pollution as well as a perpetrator.

 Particulate matter and ground-level ozone (from industrial, power plant, and transportation emissions among others) cause losses in crop yields.

 Ozone damages plant cells, handicapping photosynthesis, while particulate matter dims the sunlight that

reaches crops.

What is the irony? 

 The irony of agricultural pollution is that taxpayers are essentially paying for it through a system of subsidies.

 These subsidies motivate the very behaviors that drive the agricultural emissions that the taxpayers breathe.

How does subsidy contribute to air pollution? 

 Free power - hence ―free‖ water, pumped from the ground - is a big part of what makes growing rice in these areas attractive.

 Open-ended procurement of paddy, in spite of bulging stocks of grains with the Food Corporation of

India, adds to the incentives.

 Subsidies account for almost 15% of the value of rice being produced in Punjab-Haryana belt.

 Fertiliser, particularly urea in granular form, is highly subsidised.

 Urea is one of the cheapest forms of nitrogen-based fertiliser, but it is also one of the first to release ammonia

into the air.

 This loss of nitrogen leads to a cycle of more and more fertiliser being applied to get the intended benefits for

crops.

What could be done? 

 An important element to correct in the policy matrix is the policy of subsidies on power, fertilisers and

procurement.

 The nature of support to farmers should be shifted from input subsidies to investment subsidies.

 A diversification package, equally contributed by the Centre and states, may be done to reduce agricultural

pollution.

 The approach to diversification has to be demand-led, with a holistic framework of value chain, and not just

focused on production.

 On the fertiliser front, instead of massive subsidisation of urea, the farmers could be given an input subsidy

in cash on per hectare basis.

 Government procurement of paddy from farmers burning stubble in their fields may also be restricted.

 Taken together, these measures could double farmers‘ incomes, promote efficiency in resource use, and reduce

pollution.

 Released norms on NOx Emissions 

 NOx or Oxides of nitrogen are a criteria pollutant emitted on burning coal.

 NOx is harmful, it also triggers the formation of ground level ozone and leads to secondary particulate matter worsening health risks and needs to be controlled.

 Coal-based power plants, besides the transport sector, are a major source of this pollutant.

 There were no limits placed to control emissions of NOx from power plants before 2015.

 The MoEF&CC introduced limits of 300 mg / Nm3.

 Recently Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has relaxed NOx emission

norms.

 It has been relaxed to 450 mg / Nm3, from 300 mg / Nm3, for power stations commissioned between 2003

and 2015.

 The relaxations were brought about as the power sector strongly lobbied watering down the norms, alleging it was not possible to meet the 300 mg / Nm3 standard at all loads.

 Boiler companies assured government that a NOx emission level of 450 mg / Nm3 can be achieved by combustion modification.

 To meet emissions below it would mean installation of slightly expensive pollution control equipment like

selective non-catalytic reactors (SNCR) will be required.

Human Emissions of Nitrous Oxide 

 According to recent findings Human emissions of

nitrous oxide (N2O) increased by 30 per cent between

1980 and 2016.

 Its global concentration levels increased from 270 parts

per billion (ppb) in 1750 to 331 ppb in 2018, a jump of

20 per cent.

 The growth has been the quickest in the past five

decades because of human emissions.

 It has also found that a major proportion of the N2O

emissions in the last four decades came from the

agricultural sector, mainly because of the use nitrogen-

based fertilisers.

 Most N2O emissions have come from emergin