Punjab tops stubble fires as wheat sowing nears

Punjab has overtaken Uttar Pradesh in stubble-burning incidents this season, reporting 1,906 fires in the past week compared to 933 between September 15 and October 28, as farmers rush to clear paddy residue for timely wheat sowing.
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ANI

As paddy farmers of Punjab rush to clear stubble after harvesting to be in time for planting wheat crop, there have been 1,906 incidents of burning crop residues in the past 7 days, compared with 933 cases between September 15 and October 28. Now that Punjab leads with the highest number of stubble-burning incidents so far this season (it was behind Uttar Pradesh until October 28), it is feared that air pollution in the Delhi-NCR may worsen.

“Only 58 per cent of paddy area was harvested until October 31 out of about 32.5 lakh hectare (lh) under both Basmati and non-Basmati acreage reported this year. Farmers will try to complete wheat planting before mid-November so that the crop gets ample time for grain filling, before any heatwave could shrivelled the size,” an official source said. Last year, wheat was planted in about 35 lh.

Though the number of incidents is lower in all six monitored states this year compared to the year-ago period, this is more due to the timing of paddy harvesting; nevertheless, stubble burning will remain a concern until this paddy-wheat cycle is broken, said a former agriculture commissioner.

Data show that among the major rice growing states, the harvesting in Andhra Pradesh was complete in 15 per cent of the paddy area until October 31), whereas it was 70 per cent in Chhattisgarh, 100 per cent in Madhya Pradesh, 60 per cent in Haryana, 20 per cent in Jharkhand, 30 per cent in Maharashtra, 15 percent in Odisha, 51 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 36 per cent in Uttar Pradesh.

On the other hand, stubble burning incidents between September 15 and November 4 were 49 per cent lower at 5,481 this year, compared with 10,693 year-ago, in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

Among other Kharif crops, nearly 60 per cent of the area under pulses has been harvested — moth (a green gram family crop) 100 per cent, moong (green gram) 91 per cent, urad (black gram) and kulthi (an indigenous variety) 56 per cent, each.

Farmers across the country have completed harvesting of nutri and coarse cereals in over 59 per cent of the area — Bajra (millet) 86.53 per cent, Jowar (sorghum) 67.54 per cent, and maize 46.91 per cent.

In the oilseeds category, so far 56 per cent of the crop area has been harvested, including 29 per cent in Groundnut, 16 per cent in Soybean, nearly 50 per cent in sesame, and over 20 per cent in sunflower.

Published on November 5, 2025