Electric cooking has the potential to improve quality of life for people who cook using biomass, both by improving health by eradicating harmful emissions and by removing the need to collect fuelwood, thus freeing up time for other activities. This paper reports on a study that introduced electric cooking As an alternative to biomass-based cookingin10 households in Simli,a rural Western Nepali com...

Happy Seeder is one of the promising technologies which is used for sowing wheat without any burning of rice residue. Thistechnology is eco-friendly and improves the soil health as well as saves water.Assumptions used in economic assessment of Happy SeederFertilizer savings 10% (after 5 years), 15% (after 10 years)Yield increase 0-5%. Weedicide 50% (from 1st year)Saving of water 12cm/ha (30%) (if ...

The study evaluates the Zero-Till Happy Seeder as an alternative to residue burning for managing paddy stubble and enabling timely sowing of black gram, green gram, and maize under the soil conditions of Andhra Pradesh. It identifies the operational challenges of existing farmer practices—chiefly residue burning due to the narrow sowing window—and tests the Happy Seeder in sandy, clay loam, and bl...

Numerous sources provide evidence of trends and patterns in average farm size and farmland distribution worldwide, but they often lack documentation, are in some cases out of date, and do not provide comprehensive global and comparative regional estimates. This article uses agricultural census data (provided at the country level in Web Appendix) to show that there are more than 570 million farms w...

The customary occurrence of crop residue burning substantially increases air pollution. Authors examine the effects of nudges and cash compensation in curbing this practice using a field experiment in the rice-growing region of northern India. Information treatments include positively-framed and negatively-framed social norms and environmental awareness nudges. Authors identify the effects of info...

Crop residue burning contributes to poor air quality and imposes a health burden on India. Despite government bans and other interventions, this practice remains widespread. Here authors estimate the impact of changes in agricultural emissions on air quality across India and quantify the potential benefit of district-level actions using an adjoint modeling approach. From 2003 to 2019, authors find...

Given Indonesia’s abundant biomass resources, co-firing biomass presents an opportunity to reduce coal plant carbon emissions. However, the emissions profile of this strategy depends upon biomass sourcing, which, if derived from non-waste biomass (purpose-grown at plantations), could induce substantial land use change emissions, shifting emissions offset from coal plants to land. Here we use a pla...

India faces significant air quality challenges, contributing to local health and global climate concerns. Despite a national ban on agricultural residue burning and various incentive schemes, farmers in northern India continue to face difficulties in curbing open-field burning. Using data from 1021 farming households in rural Punjab in India, authors examine the patterns and drivers of the adoptio...

More than five billion metric tons of agricultural residues are produced annually worldwide. Despite having multiple uses and significant potential to augment crop and livestock production, a large share of crop residues is burned, especially in Asian countries. This unsustainable practice causes tremendous air pollution and health hazards while restricting soil nutrient recycling. In this review,...

Deliberate open burning of crop residues emits greenhouse gases and toxic pollutants into the atmosphere. This study investigates the environmental impacts (global warming potential, GWP) and economic impacts (net cash flow) of nine agricultural residue management schemes, including open burning, fertilizer production, and biochar production for corn residue, rice straw, and sugarcane leaves. The ...