Crop residue burning significantly contributes to air pollution in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This paper presents a causal estimate of the capital rental subsidy on crop residue burning. I involve 1,024 farmers in a field experiment with two arms: a control arm and a capital rental subsidy arm. Using high-resolution satellite imagery, the author finds that the capital rental subsidy...

The Module 2 of the Convening for System Level Impact Toolkit: "Defining the Stakeholders" covers the following questions: what is stakeholder mapping? Why is it important? What are the key steps in the process?It also includes specific tools such as:The "Inclusive Stakeholder Mapping" toolThe "Understanding the Stakeholders" toolThe "Characterizing the Stakeholders" toolThe "Planning for Meaningf...

The course presents an approach for improved mapping and differentiating spatial temporal facts at country level (agro-environmental stratification), using the best remotely sensed data and most modern interpretation/analysis methods.The course is targeted at a broad range of producers and users of spatial and non-spatial agricultural statistics, analysts and technicians in geo-information organiz...

FAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available. ...

Through a careful review of stubble burning root causes authors recognise the multidimensional nature of the problem at hand, which can not only be attributed to the malpractice of farmers in Punjab, but also historical and political factors that have led to the creation of a system that inadvertently incentivises the dangerous crop residue management practice. Authors intend to apply a behavioura...

India faces a serious air pollution crisis. Over the last decade, India has emerged as the world’s fifth most polluted country and is home to 21 of the world’s 30 most polluted cities. While the government has taken ambitious remedia steps, such as the launch of the National Clean Air Programme and its target of reducing PM2.5 pollution by 20-30% by 2024, the discourse on air pollution in India an...

Stable and clear atmospheric conditions, lower surface temperatures, an ample moisture supply, and a strong low-level inversion persisting for most of the night usually facilitates the formation of dense fog during winter in Delhi. This severely hinders the flight operations at India’s busiest airport, the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, where more than 900 flight operations occur per d...

In spring and during some fall harvests, there can be accidental fires that burn the crop residue from a field orfrom part of a field. Although corn residue is most susceptible to accidental burning, wheat residue is also vulnerable, and to a lesser extent so is soybean residue. Dry, windy conditions, along with large amounts of residue, provide the conditions for an outbreak of accidental burns. ...

Crop Residue Burning (CRB) or open burning of vegetation to prepare land for resowing remains a persistent issue globally. This practice is especially prevalent among farmers growing paddy, wheat, sugarcane, and maize (FAOSTAT, 2023).  Between 2003 and 2020, an average of 81 million hectares (Hall et al., 2024) of cropland area was burned annually. Deeply rooted in agricultural traditions, CR...

The 2024 Interim Budget gives a strong push to ex-situ crop residue management by providing explicit financial support for building a biomass supply chain. It allocates INR 564.75 crore for biomass aggregation machinery for CBG producers and increases funding for the National Bio Energy Programme from INR 75 crore to INR 300 crore. The Budget also announces phased mandatory blending of CBG in CNG ...