Sops for machinery to tackle stubble burning will fuel crisis: Farm expert

Penalising farmers who play a significant role in ensuring India's food security is not the way forward

A few days before Delhi found itself enveloped in a toxic smog that prompted the Indian Medical Association to describe the situation as a  “public health emergency," farmers in Punjab and Haryana had burned massive amounts of rice stubble to clear their fields for the next crop. As the air quality dropped to dangerous levels, the Delhi High Court referred to stubble burning as the "main villain" behind the severe pollution in and around Delhi. DEVINDER SHARMA, an expert on Indian agriculture, speaks to Nikita Puri about the crisis that stubble burning represents. Edited excerpts:

What alternatives do farmers have to