Crop straw ban proves its worth, say officials
SHANGHAI’S banning of crop straw burning is a success, according to Shanghai Agriculture Commission.
The ban was brought in two years ago as part of the city’s pollution regulations. Until then burning straw or using it as fuel for cooking was an easy and cheap way for farmers to handle the agricultural waste.
The city has produced an average 1.4 million tons of crop straw annually in the past two years, 82 percent of which was buried into farmland.
“To return a proper amount of crop straw to the fields is like adding fertilizer, which will help enrich the nutrition and micro organism in the farmland and help plants grow better,” said Shi Zhong, an official of Shanghai Agriculture Commission.
But Shi also pointed out that too much straw buried into the land could cause plant disease and attract unwanted insects.
The authority said that new channels of straw utilization would be one of its main tasks in the next few years.
Apart from being used as organic fertilizer, crop straw could also be used in cultivating edible fungus, or as animal fodder and biomass fuel. In some countries, crop straw had been used in making construction material, furniture, or producing electricity, according to the commission.
“Unlike some northern provinces, Shanghai doesn’t have many large scale enterprises that can recycle straw for other manufacture, or use it in power generation,” said Shi. “Therefore the city needs to explore ways to make better use of crop straw.”
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