Discuss how crop residue management and diversification into rice-fallows can simultaneously address soil health, air pollution and edible-oil self-sufficiency.

India's rice–wheat belt faces three linked problems. Paddy residue burnt in October–November chokes the Indo-Gangetic Plain, soils are losing organic matter, and India still imports much of its edible oil. The Rabi 2026 Khet Bachaao Abhiyaan places crop residue management alongside oilseed and pulse promotion [1]. This shows that one set of field practices can serve all three goals.

Crop residue management: soil and air

• In-situ incorporation, mulching, composting and vermicomposting replace burning and cut smoke during the peak pollution season [2].
• Residue returned to the field raises soil organic carbon, one of the 12 Soil Health Card parameters [3]. This improves moisture retention and microbial life.
• Recycled residue fits within Integrated Nutrient Management and reduces reliance on urea. India's NPK use (~9.8:3.7:1) is far from the recommended 4:2:1 [4].

Rice-fallow diversification: soil and edible oil

• Sowing oilseeds and pulses on residual moisture after kharif rice puts land that would otherwise lie idle in rabi to use [2].
• Pulses fix nitrogen biologically. Together with green manures like dhaincha (Sesbania), they rebuild fertility in rice systems [2].
• Breaking cereal monoculture reduces nitrogen-only fertilisation, which long-term fertiliser experiments show harms soil and yields [4].
• Extra domestic oilseed output supports the import-substitution goal of the National Mission on Edible Oils.

Constraints

• The short gap between paddy harvest and rabi sowing pushes farmers to burn.
• Weak uptake of soil-test advice: CAG found that only 48% of Soil Health Card holders in Madhya Pradesh applied the recommended dose [5].
• Price and procurement signals still favour rice–wheat over oilseeds.

Way forward

• PM-PRANAM gives States 50% of the fertiliser subsidy they save [6]. States can use it to reward districts that cut both burning and urea use.
• Pair custom-hire residue machinery with quality short-duration oilseed seed and assured purchase.
• Follow up campaign bursts with year-round KVK–ATMA extension [2].

Residue management and rice-fallow diversification are two halves of one cropping-system reform. The first keeps carbon in the soil and smoke out of the air. The second turns idle land into an oilseed and pulse asset. With price and market support, they can realise "Swasth Dhara, Samriddh Kisan" [2] and advance SDGs 2, 13 and 15: healthy soils, clean air and self-reliance in edible oils.