2015年CRI China Faces Dilemma in Banning Crop Straw Burning

Heavy smog again blanketed northern China during this past week's National Day holiday, with straw burning mostly blamed.

The state environmental protection bureau says they identified some 400 burning sites in nine different provinces in the north of China during the period, up over 16 percent from the same period last year.

Taikang County in the province of Henan is one area where straw burning has created major pollution problems.

Chen Huijuan with the local environmental protection bureau has been patrolling four different townships from 9:00am to 11:00pm every day over the past few weeks.

"My daily work now is to check whether township officials responsible for implementing 1 the straw burning ban will go out to farmlands every day like they're supposed to."

This year, the county has allocated 2 some 10-million yuan, as well as set up a special office, to try to reduce straw burning.

However, its an uphill battle.

Farmers in northern China traditionally burn the leftover 3 straw after the autumn harvest, then plough their land, believing the ash will work as a natural fertilizer.

But with China's problems with pollution, authorities decided 4 steps had to be taken to bring the tradition to an end, implementing burning bans a few years ago.

At the same time, steps are also being made to convince local farmers to use other ways to dispose of the leftover straw in their fields.

One of the ways being touted 5 is through the shredding 6 of the straw, rather than burning it.

Li Yinghuai, head of Taikang County's Agriculture Bureau, says straw can be an excellent fertilizer if it's shredded 7 and buried deep.

"It's a natural treasure for farm land, as it can greatly help increase the amount of organic matter in the soil to make farmland fertile. This will create higher yields."

But Zhang Baohua with the Taikang County straw burning control office says the high costs associated with shredding straw is just too much at this point.

"We estimate it will cost around 150 million yuan, or around one-sixth of our total annual revenues, if we were to adopt a straw-shredding program across the county."

Other applications for left-over straw include its use as feed for animals, as well as for generating power through biomass.

Ning Xiaofeng is with the Henan provincial 8 straw burning control office.

"81 percent of crop straw across the province was disposed of in ways rather than being burned last year. The percentage is expected to rise to 85 percent this year. However, many farmers still don't have a better way to deal with the leftover straw, so many are still burning it."

Taikang County was fined 20 million yuan by the provincial government for failing to prevent straw burning during the National Day holiday.

For CRI, I'm Luo Wen.