Heliyon (Nov 2024)
Present trends, sustainable strategies and energy potentials of crop residue management in India: A review
Abstract
India generating huge amount of agricultural waste, especially crop residues. In India, around 141 MT of crop residue is generated each year, in which 92 MT burned due to inadequate sustainable management practices, which results in rise in emissions of particulate matter as well as quality of air pollution. Burning crop residues raises mortality rates and substantially decreases crop production while posing a major risk of threatening the environment, condition of the soil, human health, and air quality. Proper crop residue management is crucial because it is rich is nutrient contents and could potentially be used to value-added products. Proper crop residue management helps in improvement in soil organic matter, increases the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil which leads to increase the production and productivity. The short planting season following the previous crop's harvest, insufficient agricultural equipment, a manpower shortage, and declining acceptance of crop residue as feed are just a few of the major causes of residue burning. This major goal of this study is to pinpoint the primary causes of this illicit activity, damaging effect of crop residue burning on the environment, and the appropriate handling of agricultural leftover for animal feed. In addition, the septs plan to keep agricultural residue on the farm by using both conventional and reduced tillage techniques, turning it into biofuels like biochar and bio-oil, mulching, composting, and briquette production. Moreover, Indian government has taken several efforts to address this issue, including programs and laws that support sustainable management practices like shifting agricultural waste into energy, providing 50–80 % subsidies under various policies and schemes to purchase crop residue management machineries. The crop residues machinery used for retention of crop residue into soil is one easy and simple method for crop residue management. This paper includes history of crop residue management, crop residue management techniques, various conversion technologies to generate energy from crop residue, generation of biogas, compost and production of briquette and biodiesels and several households uses. Moreover, different machines which help to manage the crop residues retained in soils in agricultural field used after harvest and way forward are also discussed.
