The Burning Issues of Punjab: Exploring the Different Futures on Offer when Managing Residue in Punjab’s Rice-Wheat Cropping System

Abstract

The annual rotation from rice to wheat across Punjab leaves millions of tons of straw residue. The preferred method for handling residue has been incineration. This contributes to the winter smog that covers the mega-city of New Delhi. In 2019, the Supreme Court deemed stubble burning illegal. This brought forth alternative means to handle residue. This thesis is based on fieldwork conducted in Punjab and uses a Science and Technology Studies (STS) lens to explore how the ways of handling residue affect the local and global environment and how more-than-human actors are excluded or included, depending on how performing actors frame and understand the problems and solutions. Farmers that burn residue do this due to time constraints and to avoid fungal outbreaks. The fungus is a friend if the farmers use the in-situ methods where residue is decomposed in the soil that strengthens. The ex-situ methods, which handle the residue outside of the field, make the residue into a monetized resource that can be utilized to produce renewable energy. This method increases the extraction of the soil's resources and amplifies many of the existing agricultural problems in Punjab. This thesis argues for a more inclusive future with a recognition of our co-species and asks humans to look beyond their initial issue when solving problems in the Anthropocene.