Turn the wheel from waste to wealth: Economic and environmental gain of sustainable rice straw management practices over field burning in reference to India

Abstract

Open field rice strawburning causes air pollution, GHGs emission (7300 kg CO2-equivalent per hectare), soil nutrient and biodiversity losses and human health hazards. Huge amount (731 million tons (MT)) of rice straw is produced globally in which India contributed around 126.6 MT, and 60% of them are burnt on the field. Once a wealth, the straw now became a waste subjected to burning due to technical, structural, institutional, and socioeconomic challenges. However, straw could be sustainably used to produce bioethanol, biochar, compost, mushroom, fuel-briquette, fuel-pellets, pulp, animal-feed, eco-panel, erosion-control material, and in-situ addition in conservation agriculture. In this review, we elaborated the technical and economic potential of the alternative straw management practices along with their tangible and intangible benefits, primarily on Indian context. The economic and environmental gains and losses of alternate straw management options were estimated. We found that the net gain (both economic and environmental gain) of US$ 664 per hectare due to production of bioethanol from straw followed by biochar conversion (US$ 183 ha−1), and conservation agriculture (CA) practices (US$ 131 ha−1). While in Indian context there was a net loss of US$ 107/ha due to burning which includes both environmental (intangible) US$ 81 ha−1 and economic (tangible) losses US$ 112/ha−1. The estimates indicated the potential gains/losses based on the measured, analyzed, and published data assuming that proper and efficient infrastructure and policy support would be assured during the sustainable management of the straw.