How governmentality worsens farmers’ stubble burning issue.

• The Indo-Gangetic Plain in India is often polluted due to the accumulation of pollutants from year-round sources and stubble burning.

• The burning of farm stubble, rice chaff, is a common practice in Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, contributing to the haze.

• Studies have linked particulate matter from stubble burning and winds from Punjab and Haryana to pollution levels in Delhi.

• From mid-October to the end of November 2022, the role of stubble burning to air quality was on average 22% and peaked to as much as 35%.

• The study by Jagadale and Shaikh at the Indian Institute of Management, Amritsar, argues that governmentality can be counterproductive, promoting suboptimal behaviors like stubble burning among farmers within India’s struggling agricultural marketing system.

• The “neoliberal policies” such as the Minimum Support Price (MSP) system exacerbate the issue, incentivizing mono-cropping and leaving farmers dependent on short-term, unsustainable methods.

• The study found that the Union government’s MSP policy prioritises wheat and rice production, discouraging crop diversification. Farmers face contradictory signals: the state penalizes stubble burning but offers no affordable alternatives.

• Farmers see themselves as reliant on middlemen (arhatias) who control crop prices, credit access, and market linkages.

• Stagnant MSP rates fail to cover rising cultivation costs, including labour and equipment.

• The study repositions stubble burning as a systemic outcome of distorted marketing systems and neo-liberal governance.

• Remedial interventions primarily focus on developing a market for stubble and stubble-based products, aiming to boost farmers’ income while addressing climate change challenges.

• Regulatory interventions could be conceptualised at three levels: prohibiting stubble burning, managing it through selective permits, and promoting stubble usage by incentivising stubble-based products.