In a few weeks, Delhi will again begin watching Punjab’s farm fires. Satellite images will be counted, governments will announce measures and farmers will again be asked not to burn paddy straw. But the economics facing farmers has changed little over the years: Bulky residue, a narrow window before wheat sowing, and a cost attached to almost every alternative to burning.

What has changed, however, is the value of parali itself. When we began working on crop residues, farmers in several locations were still paying to have straw removed. Today, in parts of Punjab, the same straw can fetch around Rs 1.5-2 per kg. Demand from power plants, CBG units and pellet manufacturers is slowly creating a market for what was until recently treated as waste.

This raises another question: If parali now has value, where should that value be created, and how much can remain with the farmer?

Biochar offers one possibility. It is a carbon-rich material produced by heating biomass under limited oxygen, and can be made from crop residues such as paddy, maize, cotton and mustard stalks. Roughly 100 kg of dry parali can yield around 30 kg of char. Applied to........

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