Pollution

Farmer threatened with heavy fine for straw burning

An elderly Sichuan man called Mr Xue has been threatened with a large fine for burning stalks on his field.

Straw burning has long been controversial and is banned in China. It helps farmers but causes air pollution and carries a fine of CNY 500-2,000 (USD 69-276) in accordance with the national air pollution law

Mr Xue ignited the stalks on 2 May so that he could plant corn the next day. The Songlin village authority said he would be fined the maximum amount, but in fact has no law-enforcement power. The town government then sent Mr Xue a notice requiring him to pay the minimum fine, and hoping to have a “deterrent effect” on other villagers.

The air pollution caused by straw burning can cause smog and harm health. In 1999, it was banned in some parts of China and in 2008 that ban was extended nationwide. The prohibition has always been controversial. Burning can remove crop pathogens, insect eggs and weed seeds, thereby reducing pests, diseases and the need for pesticides. Moreover, handling straw is a big burden for aged villagers whose younger family members may have migrated to the cities. Every year, villagers across the country take the risk and burn their fields anyway.

In recent years, some commentators have called for the government to reassess the ban, saying policies need to “strike a balance between benefiting agriculture and reducing environmental pollution.”

At this year’s Two Sessions, several representatives of the National People’s Congress proposed to “gradually relax the ban on straw burning”, China Reform Daily reported. Some provinces like Zhejiang, Guangxi and Hunan have also begun to study the pros and cons of the policy, and even allow villagers to burn straw in some areas under appropriate weather conditions.

Read Dialogue Earth’s 2015 analysis on straw burning in China.

-->
Cookies Settings

Dialogue Earth uses cookies to provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser. It allows us to recognise you when you return to Dialogue Earth and helps us to understand which sections of the website you find useful.

Required Cookies

Required Cookies should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

Dialogue Earth - Dialogue Earth is an independent organisation dedicated to promoting a common understanding of the world's urgent environmental challenges. Read our privacy policy.

Cloudflare - Cloudflare is a service used for the purposes of increasing the security and performance of web sites and services. Read Cloudflare's privacy policy and terms of service.

Functional Cookies

Dialogue Earth uses several functional cookies to collect anonymous information such as the number of site visitors and the most popular pages. Keeping these cookies enabled helps us to improve our website.

Google Analytics - The Google Analytics cookies are used to gather anonymous information about how you use our websites. We use this information to improve our sites and report on the reach of our content. Read Google's privacy policy and terms of service.

Advertising Cookies

This website uses the following additional cookies:

Google Inc. - Google operates Google Ads, Display & Video 360, and Google Ad Manager. These services allow advertisers to plan, execute and analyze marketing programs with greater ease and efficiency, while enabling publishers to maximize their returns from online advertising. Note that you may see cookies placed by Google for advertising, including the opt out cookie, under the Google.com or DoubleClick.net domains.

Twitter - Twitter is a real-time information network that connects you to the latest stories, ideas, opinions and news about what you find interesting. Simply find the accounts you find compelling and follow the conversations.

Facebook Inc. - Facebook is an online social networking service. China Dialogue aims to help guide our readers to content that they are interested in, so they can continue to read more of what they enjoy. If you are a social media user, then we are able to do this through a pixel provided by Facebook, which allows Facebook to place cookies on your web browser. For example, when a Facebook user returns to Facebook from our site, Facebook can identify them as part of a group of China Dialogue readers, and deliver them marketing messages from us, i.e. more of our content on biodiversity. Data that can be obtained through this is limited to the URL of the pages that have been visited and the limited information a browser might pass on, such as its IP address. In addition to the cookie controls that we mentioned above, if you are a Facebook user you can opt out by following this link.

Linkedin - LinkedIn is a business- and employment-oriented social networking service that operates via websites and mobile apps.