IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolec/v195y2022ics092180092200026x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unlocking the unsustainable rice-wheat system of Indian Punjab: Assessing alternatives to crop-residue burning from a systems perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Downing, Andrea S.
  • Kumar, Manish
  • Andersson, August
  • Causevic, Amar
  • Gustafsson, Örjan
  • Joshi, Niraj U.
  • Krishnamurthy, Chandra Kiran B.
  • Scholtens, Bert
  • Crona, Beatrice

Abstract

Crop residue burning in Indian Punjab emits particulate matter with detrimental impacts on health, climate and that threaten agricultural production. Though legal and technological barriers to residue burning exist – and alternatives considered more profitable to farmers – residue burning continues. We review black carbon (BC) emissions from residue burning in Punjab, analyse social-ecological processes driving residue burning, and rice and wheat value-chains. Our aims are to a) understand system feedbacks driving agricultural practices in Punjab; b) identify systemic effects of alternatives to residue burning and c) identify companies and financial actors investing in agricultural production in Punjab. We find feedbacks locking the system into crop residue burning. The Government of India has greatest financial leverage and risk in the current system. Corporate stakeholders have little financial incentive to enact change, but sufficient stakes in the value chains to influence change. Agricultural policy changes are necessary to reduce harmful impacts of current practices, but insufficient to bringing about sustainability. Transformative changes will require crop diversification, circular business models and green financing. Intermediating financial institutions setting sustainability conditions on loans could leverage these changes. Sustainability requires the systems perspective we provide, to reconnect production with demand and with supporting environmental conditions.

Suggested Citation

  • Downing, Andrea S. & Kumar, Manish & Andersson, August & Causevic, Amar & Gustafsson, Örjan & Joshi, Niraj U. & Krishnamurthy, Chandra Kiran B. & Scholtens, Bert & Crona, Beatrice, 2022. "Unlocking the unsustainable rice-wheat system of Indian Punjab: Assessing alternatives to crop-residue burning from a systems perspective," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:195:y:2022:i:c:s092180092200026x
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107364
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S092180092200026X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2022.107364?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chaoliu Li & Carme Bosch & Shichang Kang & August Andersson & Pengfei Chen & Qianggong Zhang & Zhiyuan Cong & Bing Chen & Dahe Qin & Örjan Gustafsson, 2016. "Sources of black carbon to the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau glaciers," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, November.
    2. Singh, Karam, 2009. "Act to Save Groundwater in Punjab: Its Impact on Water Table, Electricity Subsidy and Environment," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 22(Conferenc).
    3. Lopes, Adrian A. & Viriyavipart, Ajalavat & Tasneem, Dina, 2020. "The role of social influence in crop residue management: Evidence from Northern India," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    4. Markus Kitzmueller & Jay Shimshack, 2012. "Economic Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 51-84, March.
    5. Balwinder-Singh & Andrew J. McDonald & Amit K. Srivastava & Bruno Gerard, 2019. "Tradeoffs between groundwater conservation and air pollution from agricultural fires in northwest India," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(7), pages 580-583, July.
    6. Veerabhadran Ramanathan & Muvva V. Ramana & Gregory Roberts & Dohyeong Kim & Craig Corrigan & Chul Chung & David Winker, 2007. "Warming trends in Asia amplified by brown cloud solar absorption," Nature, Nature, vol. 448(7153), pages 575-578, August.
    7. Bert Scholtens, 2006. "Finance as a Driver of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 19-33, September.
    8. Shweta Saini & Marta Kozicka, 2014. "Evolution and Critique of Buffer Stocking Policy of India," Working Papers id:6153, eSocialSciences.
    9. Ashwini Chhatre & Sripad Devalkar & Sridhar Seshadri, 2016. "Crop diversification and risk management in Indian agriculture," DECISION: Official Journal of the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, Springer;Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, vol. 43(2), pages 167-179, June.
    10. Alex Edmans, 2014. "Blockholders and Corporate Governance," Annual Review of Financial Economics, Annual Reviews, vol. 6(1), pages 23-50, December.
    11. Srivastava, S.K. & Chand, Ramesh & Raju, S.S. & Jain, Rajni & I., Kingsly & Sachdeva, Jatinder & Singh, Jaspal & Kaur, Amrit Pal, 2015. "Unsustainable Groundwater Use in Punjab Agriculture: Insights from Cost of Cultivation Survey," Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Indian Society of Agricultural Economics, vol. 70(3), pages 1-14.
    12. Juhyun Jung & Kathleen Herbohn & Peter Clarkson, 2018. "Carbon Risk, Carbon Risk Awareness and the Cost of Debt Financing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1151-1171, July.
    13. Gardner, T.A. & Benzie, M. & Börner, J. & Dawkins, E. & Fick, S. & Garrett, R. & Godar, J. & Grimard, A. & Lake, S. & Larsen, R.K. & Mardas, N. & McDermott, C.L. & Meyfroidt, P. & Osbeck, M. & Persson, 2019. "Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 163-177.
    14. Srinivas Bikkina & August Andersson & Elena N. Kirillova & Henry Holmstrand & Suresh Tiwari & A. K. Srivastava & D. S. Bisht & Örjan Gustafsson, 2019. "Air quality in megacity Delhi affected by countryside biomass burning," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(3), pages 200-205, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Malherbe, Willem & Biggs, Reinette & Sitas, Nadia, 2024. "Comparing apples and pears: Linking capitals and capacities to assess the resilience of commercial farming operations," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    2. Gloria Urrea-Ceferino & Manuel Alejandro Grimaldos Mojica, 2023. "Crop waste management proposal in rice systems at the department of Cordoba, Colombia," Economia agro-alimentare, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 25(1), pages 167-189.
    3. Saddam Hossain Mondal & Arup Kumar Chattopadhyay, 2024. "Impact of stubble burning on air pollution and climate change in East Burdwan District, India," Indian Economic Review, Springer, vol. 59(1), pages 311-330, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sahil Bhatia & S. P. Singh, 2023. "Can an Incentivized Command-and-Control Approach Improve Groundwater Management? An Analysis of Indian Punjab," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(22), pages 1-27, November.
    2. Danisman, Gamze Ozturk & Tarazi, Amine, 2024. "ESG activity and bank lending during financial crises," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    3. Patricia Crifo & Vanina D. Forget, 2015. "The Economics Of Corporate Social Responsibility: A Firm-Level Perspective Survey," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 112-130, February.
    4. Ruoyu Lan & Sebastian D. Eastham & Tianjia Liu & Leslie K. Norford & Steven R. H. Barrett, 2022. "Air quality impacts of crop residue burning in India and mitigation alternatives," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. repec:ags:icar24:344994 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:ags:iamopb:344994 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Sukhwinder Singh & Julian Park, 2018. "Drivers of change in groundwater resources: a case study of the Indian Punjab," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(4), pages 965-979, August.
    8. Eliwa, Yasser & Aboud, Ahmed & Saleh, Ahmed, 2021. "ESG practices and the cost of debt: Evidence from EU countries," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    9. Sang Cheol Lee & Mooweon Rhee & Jongchul Yoon, 2018. "Foreign Monitoring and Audit Quality: Evidence from Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-22, September.
    10. Bertrand, Philippe & Lapointe, Vincent, 2015. "How performance of risk-based strategies is modified by socially responsible investment universe?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 175-190.
    11. Jongmoo Jay Choi & Hoje Jo & Jimi Kim & Moo Sung Kim, 2018. "Business Groups and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 931-954, December.
    12. Fang, Mingyue & Nie, Huihua & Shen, Xinyi, 2023. "Can enterprise digitization improve ESG performance?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    13. Kolcava, Dennis, 2020. "Do citizens hold business accountable for greenwashing by demanding more government intervention?," OSF Preprints sj4dk, Center for Open Science.
    14. Kotchen Matthew & Moon Jon J., 2012. "Corporate Social Responsibility for Irresponsibility," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-23, November.
    15. Hongfeng Sun & Chang Liu, 2023. "Employee Stock Ownership Plans and Corporate Environmental Performance: Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-19, January.
    16. Amolo Elvis Juma Amolo, PhD & Charles Mallans Rambo, PhD & Charles Misiko Wafula, PhD, 2021. "Mediating effect of Contract Management on Financial Risk Management Instruments and Performance of Hydroelectric Energy Projects in Kenya," International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation, International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI), vol. 8(6), pages 32-39, June.
    17. Ferrell, Allen & Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc, 2016. "Socially responsible firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 122(3), pages 585-606.
    18. Srivastavaa, SK & Singha, J & Shirsathb, PB, 2018. "Sustainability of groundwater resources at the subnational level in the context of sustainable development goals," Agricultural Economics Research Review, Agricultural Economics Research Association (India), vol. 31(2).
    19. Constantine Manasakis & Evangelos Mitrokostas & Emmanuel Petrakis, 2018. "Strategic corporate social responsibility by a multinational firm," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 709-720, August.
    20. Hart, Oliver D. & Zingales, Luigi, 2017. "Companies Should Maximize Shareholder Welfare Not Market Value," Working Papers 267, The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, George J. Stigler Center for the Study of the Economy and the State.
    21. Mahmoudian, Fereshteh & Yu, Dongning & Lu, Jing & Nazari, Jamal A. & Herremans, Irene M., 2023. "Does cost of debt reflect the value of quality greenhouse gas emissions reduction efforts and disclosure?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    22. Maarten Pieter Schinkel & Leonard Treuren, 2021. "Corporate Social Responsibility by Joint Agreement," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 21-063/VII, Tinbergen Institute.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:195:y:2022:i:c:s092180092200026x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.