India aims to harness the market to cut air pollutionBy Rajesh Kumar Singh / BloombergFarmers in India are being encouraged to sell their crop waste rather than burn it to help accelerate progress on curbing fires that spread a deadly, choking smog across key cities. Smoke from the burning of crop stubble lingers over most of north India for weeks during the cold months of November and December, with air quality deteriorating to hazardous levels in several areas, including the capital, New Delhi. Photo: Reuters“The environmental issues due to crop residue burning are mainly because of the inefficiency of the supply chain,” BiofuelCircle founder Suhas Baxi said. If there was sufficient demand and infrastructure, using the country’s entire supply of crop waste for bio-energy could generate as much as IS$50 billion in annual revenue, Baxi said in an interview. The lack of a reliable supply chain — from timely procurement, to storage, processing plants and finally a market for the products — has meant that farmers continue to burn most of their crop residue.

Source: Taipei Times December 17, 2022 17:08 UTC