Turn the wheel from waste to wealth: Economic and environmental gain of sustainable rice straw management practices over field burning in reference to India

Open field rice straw burning causes air pollution, GHGs emission (7300 kg CO2-equivalent per hectare), soil nutrient and biodiversity losses and human health hazards. Huge amount (731 million tons (MT)) of rice straw is produced globally in which India contributed around 126.6 MT, and 60% of them are burnt on the field. Once a wealth, the straw now became a waste subjected to burning due to technical, structural, institutional, and socioeconomic challenges. However, straw could be sustainably used to produce bioethanol, biochar, compost, mushroom, fuel-briquette, fuel-pellets, pulp, animal-feed, eco-panel, erosion-control material, and in-situ addition in conservation agriculture. In this review, we elaborated the technical and economic potential of the alternative straw management practices along with their tangible and intangible benefits, primarily on Indian context. The economic and environmental gains and losses of alternate straw management options were estimated. We found that the net gain (both economic and environmental gain) of US$ 664 per hectare due to production of bioethanol from straw followed by biochar conversion (US$ 183 ha−1), and conservation agriculture (CA) practices (US$ 131 ha−1). While in Indian context there was a net loss of US$ 107/ha due to burning which includes both environmental (intangible) US$ 81 ha−1 and economic (tangible) losses US$ 112/ha−1. The estimates indicated the potential gains/losses based on the measured, analyzed, and published data assuming that proper and efficient infrastructure and policy support would be assured during the sustainable management of the straw. Here, India is taken as a typical case and the specific challenges in India and subsequent initiative taken by Government and related stakeholders along with some successful international models for utilization of straw were discussed. The in-depth quantified environmental and economic analysis of sustainable straw management could give the key insight to the policy makers to tackle this complex issue of straw-burning. [Display omitted] •Around 60% of rice straws are burnt in open field in India.•Open field straw burning in N-W India may be a compulsion to farmers rather choice.•Around 7300 kg CO2-eq/ha year−1 of GHGs along with pollutants emitted due to straw burning.•Economic plus environmental loss of burning US$ 106/ha/year•Bioethanol and biochar production from straw could fetch tangible plus intangible gain of US$ 664 and 183/ha/yr, respectiv