LAHORE, Pakistan – Capital of the agriculturally rich Punjab Province, Lahore, has been engulfed in intense smoke for nearly a month. 

The government closed schools in Lahore and parts of the province on 7 November but even though they reopened a few weeks later, air pollution has remained at record, hazardous levels throughout the region.

Air Quality Index scores were 218-425 in the first few days of December. Scores of 150 and above are considered a “red alert” while 300 or higher ranks as emergency conditions in the Index, which rank ozone, PM2.5 and other pollution levels in a scoring system modelled on the US Environmental Protection Agency.

Along with mandatory mask-wearing for students and the public and banning outside sports and activities, the government ordered offices to reduce staffing by 50%, thus reducing workers’ exposures. 

Lahore was ranked fifth most polluted city in the world in 2023, with the top four slots going to Indian cities, according to IQAir.

In what has become almost an annual ritual, Senior Minister Punjab Marriyum Aurangzeb, in a press conference, blamed neighboring India for the high air pollution in Lahore.

Blame game or shared airshed?

Aurangzeb said that as winds blow from east to west, smoke from seasonal crop stubble fires in India, where farmers burn their fields to sow winter wheat, drift into the skies of Pakistan. 

However, international experts point out that when winds blow the other way, around 30% of India’s pollution in Punjab may be coming from Pakistani Punjab across the border. And roughly one-third of the air pollution in Bangladesh, is blown in from India, around this time of year.  

The two rival countries, as well as Nepal and Bangladesh, all share an important airshed along the Himalayan foothills and Indo-Gangetic Plain and the pollution of each nation affects the others. 

In the late autumn and early winter, crop stubble burning plays a significant role in air pollution on both sides of the India-Pakistan frontier, according to a 2023 UN report on Sustainable Management of Crop Residues in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and Pakistan: Challenges and Solutions. 

The problems typically begin in late October when farmers, in a hurry to prepare their land for winter wheat sowing, burn the rice stalks that remain in their fields. Thousands of fires visible across the region from satellite images. 

Experts have long said that a shift to more modern crop residue technologies is critical to reducing the harmful effects of stubble burning in both India and Pakistan, which are the world’s largest, and fourth largest, rice exporters respectively.

Although across the Indo-Gangetic plains region, a wide variety of other pollution sources also play a role, from inefficient traditional brick kilns, to smoky household wood and coal fires, as well as polluting factories and diesel vehicles.

Punjab Province launches ambitious smog control programme 

In April 2024, Punjab’s new Chief Minister, Maryam Nawaz set out to change that.  She launched an ambitious new Smog Control Program, aimed at a range of far-reaching measures intended to better control the region’s heavy air pollution from a variety of sources. 

These included shifting brick kilns to more modern technologies, along with other industrial pollution sources, encouraging a transition to electric vehicles (EV’s) and a shift away from burning crop residue. Observers say that the transition to cleaner brick kiln technology shows signs of progress, while the introduction of EVs will take much more time. 

The crop residue programme, meanwhile, included a stick and a carrot. The stick was a ban on stubble burning, punishable by fines of $170 for offenders. The carrot was the offer of new generation “Super Seeder” machines subsidised by 65%. 

Despite the smoggy skies over Lahore,  Health Policy Watch conversations with Punjab farmers and experts suggest that the new “Super Seeder” technology shows some promise, although its benefits won’t be reaped this season.   

Happy Seeders didn’t work well

The SuperSeeders represent an upgrade from first-generation “Happy Seeders” – which were introduced in Pakistan a decade ago, but never really took off. 

Speaking with Health Policy Watch, Hamza Cheema, a farmer from Wazirabad District, around 150 kilometres north of Lahore, explained why. 

“I tried the Happy Seeder once as well, but the [wheat] seeds often remain on the surface rather than going deep into the wet soil. That yields a poor wheat crop,” he explained.

The Super Seeder’s new features address this by plunging the seed deep in the earth.

But even with the generous subsidies offered on new machines, they remain a hefty purchase  and farmers like Cheema are still waiting to see how they perform over time. 

“It softens the soil, making it easier to plant seeds deep into the ground and removes the rice straw residue, but I have not used it because it costs around $5000 USD (PKR 1. 5 million) to purchase,” he said. 

While many of his neighbors still prefer to pay the fines for crop-burning, imposed by government regulators, Cheema’s farm of about 100 acres lies adjacent to a forest, which he doesn’t own but still cherishes, and he fears that smoke would harm the tree cover. 

“So I continue to level the rice stalks on my land by plowing them under with a tractor,” said Cheema. Even though that process, followed by seeding, is time-consuming. 

Super Seeders: cost remains a barrier 

About 200 kilometres south-west of Lahore, farmer, Dilawar Khan Rath was an early adopter of the new Super Seeder, and he’s happy with the results despite the investment it required. 

Rath, who farms about 125 acres, purchased his machine in 2023. He believes that the investment will pay off in the long-term, in terms of field operations. The machine mixes the stubble into the soil, which helps increase the fertility of the land- as compared to crop-burning, which depletes soil fertility.

“It also saves time, as a single pass is required for land preparation, fertiliser placement, and seed sowing,” Rath explained.

The machine’s expense makes it feasible largely for larger landholders. As the owner of 125 acres of fertile land, he falls into that category but could just about afford the investment. 

Maintenance costs are high because trained technicians are not widely available and fuel consumption is also significant. 

However, if the government reduced the interest rates on purchase loans and launching a leasing programme through local farm councils, the machines would catch on much more widely, he asserts. 

“The Punjab government is providing Super Seeders on subsidy, which is a good initiative, but their numbers are limited,” Rath said.

Meanwhile, Rath is also conscious of the health and environmental benefits of using Super Seeders. Smog remains a serious problem in his district .

Super Seeders: not the only solution 

Indeed, the Punjab government intends to launch a leasing programme for the new machines, according to the office of Punjab’s Chief Minister. 

“There are 300 Super Seeders in the whole of Punjab, and the government is adding 1,000 more, with a total of 5,000 to be added over the next five years,” said a statement by Chief Minister Nawaz. The price of purchasing a machine outright will be set at $1,800 – with the remaining $2,800 covered by the government.   

“Public cooperation is essential to eliminate smog,” she added.

While pollution from burning crop residue is indeed an issue, it should also not be seen as the primary cause of environmental pollution, Vaqar Zakaria, an environmental activist, told Health Policy Watch.  

He said that there remains a lack of data, overall, on the contribution of crop-burning to Punjab’s overall pollution load. 

“This technology has helped address the issue of residue burning for farmers, but that the current focus should be on increasing its availability to reach more farmers,” Pakistan’s former Federal Minister for Climate Change, Malik Amin Aslam, told Health Policy Watch in an interview. 

He noted that the Super Seeder technology was in fact first introduced three years ago by the previous government – and since then it has gained significant popularity among farmers, resulting in a notable reduction in residue burning in Punjab.

But regional dialogue and data exchange is also essential to tackle smog effectively – as East Asian countries did successfully, he stressed.

“Only through data sharing and regional cooperation, can this issue be managed, adding that he believes India might be willing to participate in such efforts.”

Image Credits: Punjab Enviornment Department, IQ Air , YouTube/Business Recorder , Rahul Basharat, Engro Energy.