Workshop brainstorms over Manipur’s rice residue-burning practice

Our Correspondent
Imphal, Feb. 1 (EMN): Perhaps it is for the first time in Northeast India that the topic is coming into focus of any intellectual discourse: a daylong brainstorming workshop on ‘rice residue burning’ in Manipur was what it was. About 5.28 lakh tons of rice residue are said to be burned every year in the state.
The workshop discussed various issues and strategies for sustainable management and how to work out economically-viable alternatives for ‘rice residue burning’ and ensure a ‘green’ environment.
The workshop was conducted by the Indian association of hill farming of Meghalaya in collaboration with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research for NE region; and the Central Agricultural University (CAU) in Imphal on Wed. Most of the speakers during the day’s inaugural session spoke about effectively managing ‘rice residue burning’ besides pointing to the need to devise a ‘meaningful’ strategy in a framer-friendly way. Such an approach can be taken by the state’s government to formulate a policy ‘while creating knowledge among farmers in the state about the ill-effects of rice residue burning, should be looked into.’
A souvenir was released in connection with the day’s session.
In the technical sessions, principal scientist of the ICAR for NE region Dr Arup Das said that the region produces around 8 million tons of rice residues which is 90 percent of the crop residue. A huge quantity (20-30 percent) of rice residues is burnt in India annually.
In Manipur too, around 0.5 million tons of rice residue from 2.2 lakh hectares of rice areas are being burned annually leading to generation of pollutants such as 6864 tons of particulate matter, 31680 tons of carbon monoxide, 770880 tons of carbon dioxide, 1848 tons of Nitrogenoxide, and 1056 tons of Sulphur dioxide.