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Climate Change Stories

Against the Grain: Farming for the Planet in India’s Breadbasket

Breaking a cycle of field-clearing fires in India can help soil store millions more tons of carbon and recharge water supplies.

Amar Singh walks along a field of wheat that is still green in Punjab.
Amar walks the farm Amar Singh at his farm in Punjab, India. Singh is growing paddy (rice), an essential food crop for the people of India. © Smita Sharma

Sardar Amar Singh’s hands tell many stories: weathered skin marks a lifetime of hard work, a shortened index finger, the result of a wheat cutting accident, reveals a streak of resilience.

Like many of his neighbors, Singh is a transformer. The 80 year-old turns small seeds into food that sustains the world’s 2nd most populous nation.

Closeup of Amar Singh's weathered hands, including an amputated index finger on his left hand.
Working hands A close up of Amar Singh’s hand with an amputated finger which he lost while working on a wheat cutting machine. © Smita Sharma
× Closeup of Amar Singh's weathered hands, including an amputated index finger on his left hand.
Aerial of Amar Singh walking over a dry bare farm field with tractor tracks that has just been seeded.
Seeded field Amar Singh walks through his one-acre field in Punjab, India where he recently harvested a crop of paddy (rice) while also seeding the field with wheat. © Smita Sharma
× Aerial of Amar Singh walking over a dry bare farm field with tractor tracks that has just been seeded.

Though his farm is less than an acre in size, it’s woven into India’s breadbasket, a network of millions of small farms across the Northwestern states of Punjab and Haryana.

Today, after a recent planting, Singh’s field is taking in the sun, waiting to transform. But around it, smoke fills the air from multiple directions. Soon, the sun will be replaced by a pale dot, signaling bleak times ahead.

Right now, much of India’s breadbasket is on fire.

Stopping the burns: Healthier farming in NW India A dynamic look at the issue of burning paddy rice stubble in Northwest India. TNC leaders describe the factors that lead to the fires and how partnering with farmers can lead to solutions that work for communities and the planet. Videography by Smita Sharma. Aerial videography by Dipankar Sharma.

The burning question

At roughly the same time each year, 2 million farmers across Punjab and Haryana set their fields aflame.

The heat kills the microbes that once gave the soil its fertility. Millions of tons of carbon dioxide that were stored up in plants drift into the upper atmosphere, adding to the growing layer of gases heating the planet.

At the surface, toxins like carbon monoxide and ozone fill the air, making breathing difficult for rural and urban residents alike.

Aerial of a rice paddy field on fire. The orange flames are making their way to tan rice stubble while leaving a path of smoldering lines of stubble.
Aerial of burning fields Every year, millions of tons of stubble from paddy rice crops are burnt, resulting in heavy smog and air pollution in Delhi and neighboring regions. © Smita Sharma
× Aerial of a rice paddy field on fire. The orange flames are making their way to tan rice stubble while leaving a path of smoldering lines of stubble.
Large orange flames rise from burning rice fields as a dark dense smog blocks out visibility and light.
Burning paddy field A burning rice paddy field in Punjab, India. Black carbon from these fires ends up in the air and can land in arctic regions, where soot causes white ice to warm faster. © Smita Sharma
× Large orange flames rise from burning rice fields as a dark dense smog blocks out visibility and light.
Aerial of burning fields Every year, millions of tons of stubble from paddy rice crops are burnt, resulting in heavy smog and air pollution in Delhi and neighboring regions. © Smita Sharma
Burning paddy field A burning rice paddy field in Punjab, India. Black carbon from these fires ends up in the air and can land in arctic regions, where soot causes white ice to warm faster. © Smita Sharma

Why burn? For many farmers, the decision is less a decision and more a response to climate-shortened growing seasons, regulatory requirements and rapid changes in the world of farming.

Fortunately, the solutions also start with transformations in farming, and farmers like Singh are sharing what they know with anyone who’ll listen.

A Food System to Heal the Planet

More about regenerative food systems

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Farming methods that work with nature to improve the health of soils can play an enormous role in fighting climate change while enhancing the conditions for growing food.

In Northwest India, soil health practices can also help eliminate the harmful fires, save precious water and bring back the sun.

Two women wearing colorful fabric crouch over submerged rice in a paddy.
Transplanting paddy crop Local laborers transplant freshly germinated paddy crop (rice) at a farm in Haryana. © Smita Sharma
× Two women wearing colorful fabric crouch over submerged rice in a paddy.
A woman tends to dozens of flat breads on a large stove as other community members work in the background.
Roti for the community Volunteers prepare food in the community kitchen at the Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab. The temple receives rice and wheat donations from local farmers to feed visitors. © Smita Sharma
× A woman tends to dozens of flat breads on a large stove as other community members work in the background.
Transplanting paddy crop Local laborers transplant freshly germinated paddy crop (rice) at a farm in Haryana. © Smita Sharma
Roti for the community Volunteers prepare food in the community kitchen at the Golden Temple, Amritsar, Punjab. The temple receives rice and wheat donations from local farmers to feed visitors. © Smita Sharma

A tale of two scarcities

In the 1960s, India’s Green Revolution brought high-yielding seeds and machinery like tractors to Punjab and Haryana, turning the region into an agricultural powerhouse.

Charged with bolstering India’s food security, millions of farmers started doing what was once inconceivable: growing both rice and wheat on the same field in the same year.

Lush green chutes of paddy rice emerge from water in neat rows and grids.
Rice Close-up of a paddy (rice) field on the premises of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. © Smita Sharma
× Lush green chutes of paddy rice emerge from water in neat rows and grids.
A field of mature wheat looks like an explosion of golden tendrils and seeds.
Wheat A mature wheat farm ready to be harvested in Haryana, India. © Smita Sharma
× A field of mature wheat looks like an explosion of golden tendrils and seeds.
Rice Close-up of a paddy (rice) field on the premises of Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab. © Smita Sharma
Wheat A mature wheat farm ready to be harvested in Haryana, India. © Smita Sharma

But, over time, this new intensified farming caused groundwater levels to dip dangerously low, threatening communities and ecosystems. To save water, the government started in 2009 to require farmers to wait to flood their rice paddies until the start of the monsoon rains.

This shift helped address the water scarcity, but as a side effect, it caused a new scarcity: time. Suddenly the time between the rice harvest and wheat planting shrank to just 10-20 days.

This wouldn’t be a problem if not for the stubble.

A farmer crouches in a field holding straight intact rice paddy stubble in one hand and chopped up mulched stubble in another hand.
Intact and mulched stubble Farmer Gurdeep Singh shows mulched paddy stubble (left) and intact paddy stubble (right) at his farm in Punjab, India. In order for farmers to plant wheat, they must remove the intact stubble. While many farmers burn the stubble, Singh manages it by mulching it into the soil while planting wheat. © Smita Sharma

Big trouble with stubble

Farmers are able to quickly gather the rice by driving large combine harvesting machines, but the process leaves behind a sharp and twisting heap of woody straw known as paddy stubble. In order to plant wheat, they must remove this maze of stubble—and fast.

A person wearing protective fabrics drives a large maroon colored combine machine that sweeps up wheat in its machinery.
Harvesting with a combine © Smita Sharma

With the window for planting wheat rapidly closing, millions of farmers hastily clear the stubble by simply burning it.

The fiery haze reaches a crescendo in October and November. Toxins from the fires mix with pollutants from other sources like factories and transportation.

The season’s cooling temperatures slow the wind’s circulation, sealing the smog in place to irritate lungs, eyes and hearts. The indoors give little reprieve; homes in this region were built with ventilation in mind.

A view from the passenger side of an open jeep as Amandeep Kaur drives through a farming region, the landscape flying in motion around her.
in the driver's seat Farmer Amandeep Kaur, 22, drives an open jeep in Punjab, India. Seen as a role model in her community, Kaur has been vocal against the practice of crop burning. © Smita Sharma

Seeding a better future

Amandeep Kaur knows it doesn’t have to be this way. She also knows she could’ve escaped the haze and accepted an offer from a foreign university. Instead, Kaur chose college close to home so she could support her family’s farm in Punjab.

She’s made a sizeable impact on farming in her community, and her voice is only growing.

Quote: Amandeep Kaur

When we burn the fields, we are burning biodiversity. But even insects have family and we need to respect that.

Farmer and College Student, Punjab, India

Kaur urged her father to stop burning crop residue several years ago. Now she helps lead the family’s operations across 45 acres. The father-daughter duo, willing to try something new, were early adopters of a crop seeding machine called Happy Seeder that holds a lot of promise.

As the Happy Seeder rolls behind its towing tractor, it:
        1) collects and chops the paddy stubble
        2) plants wheat seeds into the soil, and
        3) spreads the chopped rice straw over the wheat as a mulch.

Amandeep drives through a dry rice field with a blue tractor with an orange attachment in back known as the super seeder.
Amandeep driving the seeder Amandeep Kaur drives a tractor towing a Smart Seeder, which brings together benefits from other seeders. Kaur is testing it on her farm, and returns have been promising. © Smita Sharma
× Amandeep drives through a dry rice field with a blue tractor with an orange attachment in back known as the super seeder.
In a long university building, three large seeder machines of different colors sit next to each other, full of rotors and hoses.
Different seeders From left to right, the Super Seeder, Smart Seeder, and Happy Seeder, sit at Punjab Agricultural University. Each machine manages stubble slightly differently. © Smita Sharma
× In a long university building, three large seeder machines of different colors sit next to each other, full of rotors and hoses.
Amandeep driving the seeder Amandeep Kaur drives a tractor towing a Smart Seeder, which brings together benefits from other seeders. Kaur is testing it on her farm, and returns have been promising. © Smita Sharma
Different seeders From left to right, the Super Seeder, Smart Seeder, and Happy Seeder, sit at Punjab Agricultural University. Each machine manages stubble slightly differently. © Smita Sharma

Not only do seeders like this one eliminate the need to burn, they also improve the soil by trapping moisture and creating natural fertilizer.

While stubble-burning neighbors must increasingly spend more income on fertilizers to rebuild their fields, Kaur’s soil has stayed alive and is constantly regenerating and enriching itself. It’s also supporting a web of life.

“When we burn the fields, we are burning biodiversity,” says Kaur. “But even insects have family and we need to respect that.”

View from behind a farmer as he drives a tractor through a field. His full face can be seen in a small rear view mirror in front of him.
View from the tractor Gurdeep Singh, a 4th generation farmer, has been farming for 18 years. Since starting to use Happy Seeder in 2017, he's seen significant improvements in the quality and yield of grain. He believes his crops are able to better withstand strong winds compared to those managed with traditional methods. © Smita Sharma

Farmers are the heroes

Every farmer who switches away from burning stubble represents a win for the planet. But in a region where farms average less than 10 acres, substantially reducing carbon emissions and recharging the water table will take a lot of farmers.

Switching more farms to no-burn agriculture is The Nature Conservancy (TNC) current goal, after years of piloting with farmers across the region.

“The most distinctive feature of this work is its scale,” says Annapurna Vancheswaran, Managing Director of TNC India. TNC’s approach in India sees farmers as partners and the heroes they can be in combatting climate change, water scarcity and air pollution.

As Vancheswaran’s team helps farmers switch off of burning, it identifies the most practical and affordable methods that can be shared more broadly. Beyond providing valuable insights, farmers like Singh and Kaur infuse energy and optimism that invigorates TNC and it partners.

Amandeep lifts a lid from an orange seeder machine and peers inside of the machinery. Her father is nearby.
Checking the seeder machine Amandeep Kaur and her father check the Smart Seeder, a new machine that brings together benefits from the Happy Seeder and Super Seeder. Kaur's family is part of a group of farmers testing the seeder on their farms. The early returns, in crop health and yield, have been promising. © Smita Sharma

There is, after all, a lot of work to do; helping thousands of farmers change how they farm requires reaching millions of people in one way or another.

And the ways are many: Farmer WhatsApp groups. Wall murals. Mobile apps. Thousands of agri-entrepreneurs trained to connect farmers to available machinery in thousands of villages. Accessible info about the latest seeder models and about growing diverse crops like fruits and vegetables.

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And the ever-powerful word-of-mouth between farmers.

“Most people are willing to try these machines out,” says Amar Singh, who’s been known to go around his village trying to convince farmers to switch to various new tools instead of burning their fields.

For many farmers, seeing is believing. Finding comparable harvests is great; experiencing rejuvenated soil that needs less water and fertilizers is even better.

Several workers pack crates with orange, yellow and green tomatoes while sitting on a work blanket in a field.
Harvesting Tomatoes Farm workers harvest tomatoes in Haryana, India. Seeder machines aren't the only way to avoid burning stubble. TNC and partners also encourage farmers to diversify their crops beyond rice and wheat by growing fruits, vegetables and legumes. © Smita Sharma

The roots of burning run shallow

Over the next few years, TNC and local partners across northwest India hope to prevent 6 million tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, while saving 500 billion liters of the region’s stressed water resources.

Quote: Amandeep Kaur

I believe in a few years no one will burn their fields anymore. They won’t need to.

Farmer and College Student, Punjab, India

As technologies for carbon storage and renewable energy continue to develop, India can right now focus on meeting some of their carbon reduction commitments by improving how its breadbasket region grows food.

It will take some unlearning, some transformation and a detour from the conventional. Going against the grain, against popular practice, is always a risk.

But the legacy of stubble burning does not go back so far. Its roots, unlike the stubble itself, can be plucked with ease.

“The younger generation is more aware and against stubble burning. We are interested in new technologies and newer ways of making things work,” says Kaur.

“I believe in a few years no one will burn their fields anymore. They won’t need to.”

Fog settles in the valleys formed by green rolling hills in India.
Western Ghats The hills of the Western Ghats—India’s rainforests that line the west coast of India. © TNC