Farmer perspectives on crop residue burning and sociotechnical transition in Punjab, India

Burning rice stubble is a common practice for millions of farmers across the Indo-Gangetic Plains. Though burning represents a low input, cost-effective strategy of crop residue management (CRM), it produces harmful air pollution, and it releases greenhouse gasses. Large-scale transition to no-burn CRM in northwest India will require social and technological change. We analyze data from 60 focus group discussions and 24 interviews with farmers and key actors related to agriculture in Punjab, and we discuss our findings using a sociotechnical systems framework. Farmers and key informants alike illustrate the complexity of CRM, highlight the diversity of machinery used in rice-wheat cropping, and identify a multi-level and unequal policy landscape that constricts the time available to implement no-burn CRM between harvesting rice and sowing wheat crops. Farmer responses reveal mistrust and uncertainty regarding current incentives for no-burn CRM, including subsidies for purchasing no-burn CRM machinery and fines for burning. Nonetheless, farmers support new long-term price subsidies for alternate rice varieties, crops, and fuel. In addition to cost-reduction measures, farmers and key informants voice support for local demonstrations of no-burn CRM, promoting agricultural services through social organizations, and being free to choose how to best reduce or eliminate burning on their fields. In contrast to studies that consider individual farmers’ willingness to accept payment for reduced burning, our findings emphasize the importance of considering the political and technological aspects of CRM in Punjab. Respondents acknowledge the importance of improving individual incentives while working through local organizations to provide wider access to no-burn CRM technology and address information asymmetries. • Policy, technological complexity, and beliefs about the costs related to no-burn crop residue management promote burning. • Farmers perceive efforts to subsidize machines and enforce sanctions for burning to be ineffective and inequitable. • Cooperative societies play a key role in providing access to agricultural machines for no-burn agriculture. • · Farmers suggest reducing economic risks for other rice varieties and lowering the cost of incorporating crop residues.