Livestock provides green alternative to Agro based waste(Rice straw) for Housing and Feed

Livestock provides green alternative to Agro based waste(Rice straw) for Housing and Feed

Hardik dhull¹, Suryapal singh² and Harshita Singh³

¹Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering Matu Ram Institue of Engineering and Management Rohtak

²Guest Faculty, Shri Vishawkarma Skill University, Dudhola Palwal

³PhD Scholar CCS HAU Hisar

Stubble burning is a burning issue today. Hue and cry is raised to control stubble burning by farmers without offering alternative measure to Farmers. Creating facilities of custom hiring has not been so effective and results are not up to the expected level. Analysis of data for the last three years reveals that stubble burning has increased by 67% in Punjab. Punjab grew paddy on 27 lakh hectares including basmati on 7 lakh hectares this year. This is expected to produce around 16.5 million tonnes of paddy residue this year. Tis is state of affairs of one state leaving aside the other paddy growing states. The cumulative effect of biomass generated aggravates the situation. Pollutions during these months can not be attributed to stubble burning alone. There are so many sources of pollution starting from industrial units oozing out smoke chimneys to vehicular pollution. Farmers accused the government of not fulfilling the promised amount of Rs 2500 per acre as compensation to hire labourers for clearing the fields. The intensification of Paddy cultivation has raised the cases of stubble burning significantly since the green revolution. A study titled “Crop Residue Burning in Northern India: Increasing Threat to Greater India” led by NASA and published in July 2018 relates the introduction of mechanized harvesting (started in the 1980s) to the stubble burning. It explains that harvester leaves much taller ( 1-2 ft tall) stubbles than (6 inches) in manual harvesting. Moreover, farmers claim that they have been burning stubble for decades. The stubble is hard, low in calorific value, and high in silica content and hence it cannot be used as fodder.The Ministry of Earth Sciences data of last few months revealed that stubble burning contributes only 16% to the Delhi pollution. This share was 36% a few days back and came down to 9% last Saturday. Other sources such as road dust, vehicular emissions, and industrial activities are the major causes of pollution in NCR. Besides, a drop in wind speed keeps pollutants trapped in the air, which deteriorates the quality of air. Government is serious to crub this pollution. NGT has been directed by the Supreme court to act effectively as the air pollution index has already reached the alarming level. Government is also introducing legislation on this issue to punish all those who are violators. Alone government efforts may not be that fruitful without the involvement of masses and making it a public derive. The call of Hon’ble PM for Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is giving us desired results with participation of public. The agriculture industry in India reached a value of INR 56,564 Billion in 2019. The agriculture industry represents an important component of the Indian economy both in terms of its contribution to the GDP as well as a source of employment to the majority of the country’s population. This sector is currently showing immense opportunities, with India presently being one of the world’s largest agricultural producers by value. A number of transformations have taken place in this sector over the past few decades. These include – rising penetration of the organized sector, growth in contract farming, agriculture becoming more mechanized, easy loan facilities, rise of exports, use of agrochemicals and high yielding seeds, and an increasing role of the private sector in processing, branding and marketing, etc but at the same time unintentional production of agro based waste is also produced .

Green alternative to stubble burning

1. agro waste to make eco-friendly products: The agro-based industry includes industries related to textiles, sugar, paper and vegetable oil. These industries use agricultural products as their raw materials. Textile industry along with sugar industry is the largest industry in the organized sector. These agro based industries are utilizing both product and bye product. The main product is yarn and the bye product for human and livestock population. For example, Cotton industry is providing fibre yarn for human clothing but at the same time cotton seed to feed animals. Even cotton seed are further processed for cotton seed oil and cake consumed by human and livestock, respectively. Making cups, plate, egg trays and insulation boards with the agro residues is common practice now a days. We can replace products made of single-use plastic with this. We can also use hemp, coir banana and corn residues apart from paddy. It is biodegradable and turns into manure in the soil, and when thrown into water it can serve as feed for algae and some varieties of plants. In addition to solving the problem of environmental pollution, the farmers can also get some revenue by selling the products made out of the waste.
2. PUSA Decomposer: The ‘PUSA Decomposer’, as it is called, is a set of four tablets made by extracting fungi strains that help the paddy straw to decompose at a much faster rate than usual, giving farmers the option to shred the straw, spray a solution containing the fungal strains, and mix it with the soil for decomposition.
3. use of rice residue as fodder:The rice residue as fodder for animals is not a very popular practice among farmers . This is mainly because of the high silica content in the rice residue. It is believed that almost 40 % of the wheat straw produced is used as dry fodder for animals.India is short of animal feed for their livestock wealth which make it malnourished and the potential of animals is not fully exploited. The animals which are optimally fed are showing their worth as elite animals. We are deficient in dry fodder to the tune of approximately 11%. This deficiency can be met from enriching the available stubble for burning as a feed and fodder for Livestock. Truck loads of “Parali”  can be seen on roads transporting it from fodder rich area to deficient areas of Rajasthan. After value addition with urea and molasses these can be easily feed and is palatable to animals for their increased productivity. This is solving two problems at one time only thing required is good management. Burning is also double edged on one side it is reducing soil fertility by killing the useful fauna and  reducing soil carbon contents. It also pollutes the environment causing health hazard. Now it has

Source: NIANP 2005

4. use of rice residue in bio-thermal power plants: Energy demands of industry, agriculture, transport and domestic sectors of a developing nation are primarily in terms of electricity and transportation fuel. Rice is a major crop in many developing countries. The residues of this crop, viz. rice husk, and rice straw have high potential for bioenergy generation. To explore potential of this bio-resource and emphasizes its effective utilization for energy production through techno-economic analysis is required. Rice straw has three key elements: silica, high cellulose, and a long decomposition period. Rice straw is widely used, including as animal feed and to produce non-wood fibres for newsprint production and corrugated mediums. Rice straw can be converted into bioethanol, a clean-burning fuel however, this requires a costly chemical conversion process. Rice straw can also be used as a fuel source in a combustor or utility boiler. It is necessary to avoid slagging and fouling during the boiling and combustion processes. There are two processes for harvesting energy from rice straw thermochemical and biochemical processes. The choice of conversion process depends upon the type and quantity of biomass feedstock; the desired form of the energy, i.e., end-user requirements; environmental standards; economic conditions; and project-specific factors. We can get energy by direct combustion, gasification and pyrolysis. But at the same time, it has some challenges related to environment like emission of harmful gases and ash.
5. use for mushroom cultivation: The rice-straw mushroom (Volvariellavolvacea) has a distinct flavor, pleasant taste, and rich protein content. It has low production costs and a cropping duration of approximately 45 days—making it an effective means for poverty alleviation for those farmers who grow it. Farmers in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Cambodia grow it. Rice straw is one of the most common substrates used for growing this mushroom. The mushroom can grow well in both outdoor and indoor conditions; however, outdoor cultivation has risks of exposure to rain, wind, and/or high temperatures, all which reduce yield. The yield of indoor mushroom production is higher and more stable, as such, indoor growing is preferred.
6. for bedding material for cattle: During winter season the animals are kept indoor to protect them from cold exposure bedding is needed specially for neonates. Rice straw may be one of the bedding material which can be replaced frequent being a cheap source.
7. its use for production of bio-oil: Bio-oil from rice straw is produced by pyrolysis with and without solid acid catalysts. The results revealed that a similar bio-oil yield (liquid product) of 44–48% can be reached by pyrolysis in the presence of solid acid catalysts at 450 °C compared to that of pyrolysis without catalysts at 550 °C.
8. paper production: Rice straw is one of the most important materials that has been used for pulp and paper production due to the high cellulose content. Rice straw contains 33-40% of cellulose, 24-28% of hemicellulose and 2-25% of lignin

9. Housing for livestock and livestock owners:

In order to bridge the gap between research and development and large-scale application of new building material technologies, the erstwhile Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India, had established the BUILDING MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGY PROMOTION COUNCIL in July 1990.The Council strives to package proven innovative technologies for the benefit of entrepreneurs interested in setting up manufacturing units in tiny, small, medium and large-scalesectors. There has been a demand for setting up such an apex institution in order to provide an inter-disciplinary platform to various agencies under Central and State Governments and the private sector for scaling up proven technologies to enhance their wide-spread use and for assisting commercial production as well as systematic dissemination of appropriate technology for the benefit of the construction of appropriate technology for the benefit of the construction agencies and different sections of the population. The Council is structured to undertake the task of the extension and application of technologies and materials developed by research institutions on the ground with the backing of financial institutions and enabling regulatory environment. Presently civil engineers are working on Agro based waste material in the form of straw to use as building material. Wheat , rice and other weed straws are commonly used to provide cost effective housing for livestock anf their owners. These structures are very comfortable during winter and summer providing conditioned environment. Farmers can not afford costly housing for their livestock as they have to earn their butter and bread from the saving of livestock produce to run their family affairs. Thatched roofs are a common sight in rural areas. “Chhapar” housing livestock are common sights along road sides while travelling. But seasonal wear and tear is frequent wasting a lot of resource and time of livestock owner in repair and replenishing these on year to year basis.  Now technologies are providing a great hope and opportunity to build these cost effective housing with longer duration without any wear and tear.

10. Other uses include incorporation of paddy straw in soil, energy technologies and thermal combustion.

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