Uttar Pradesh duo come up with eco-friendly solution to curb stubble burning and air pollution
Lalit and Raman’s innovative yet inexpensive eco-friendly compost pit has stopped nearly 45,000 kg CO2 emissions from entering the atmosphere, in an attempt to curb air pollution.
Every year, the national capital’s air quality deteriorates, and Punjab and Haryana are held responsible for failing to curb its stubble burning - a leading cause of air pollution. Despite coming up with new policies and taking strict actions, the problem persists.
To deal with this issue, Lalit Tyagi and Raman Kant from Uttar Pradesh have come up a sustainable and alternative solution.
The Lalit-Raman compost pit or model has helped stop nearly 45,000 kg of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere, and it has been successfully implemented in 50 villages across Uttar Pradesh.
As eastern UP is famous for its sugarcane and rice plantation, the residue generated from it is burnt, causing air pollution.
Hence, in 2016, Lalit and Raman developed a compost pit, which can be built at a cost of Rs 25,000. The pit has a standard outer dimension of 8*3*1 m and inner dimension of 7.1*2.1*1 m.
After the farming season, the pit is filled with sugarcane leaves, paddy waste, cow dung, soil, and water, reports Ballotbox India.
Later, in a span of two months, the farmer can procure solid manure, which is enough for an entire farm. Overall, the pit can be sustained for over 20-25 years without much maintenance.
Speaking to The Logical Indian, Kant said,
We also have an additional part in the pit which collects liquid manure. We tell the farmers to construct these pits near the water source so that the liquid manure is combined with irrigation water. This is more effective than spraying insecticide or pesticide.
A farmer can fill the entire pit with the biomass from an acre of land (4,000 sqm), and in return, they can get 75 quintals of solid manure, and 24,000 litres of liquid manure in a year. In addition to this, it also eliminates 45,000 kg of CO2 from entering the environment.
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If the same is expanded to 50 farmers at 50 different locations, the total solid manure produced will be 3,750 quintals and 12,00,000 litres of liquid manure, which in total would eliminate 22,50,000 kg of CO2 from entering the atmosphere.
Now, with more farmers accepting the LR compositing pit, the innovation has been approved by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India; Indo Global Social Service Society (Germany); Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, GoI; and United Nations Development Program, New Delhi.
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