A Review on Sustainable Rice Straw Management Through Anaerobic Digestion

Even though technologically we have advanced many folds, the dreadful practices of eco-asphyxiating the sanctity of a clean air parcel are widely prevalent in our country. Among the famous agrarian economies of the world, India and China are one of the largest generators of agro-waste with a non-streamlined infrastructure for agro-waste management. Of late, reports of smog in the Northern regions of India were in trend owing to farmers’ open burning of paddy straw in Haryana and Punjab. These emissions account for more than 29% of PM 2.5 emissions which, along with other sources, are one of the major contributors to bad health. This also adds to the escalating greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), which messes up the global climate balance. In light of the latest COP26, where all the developed and developing nations are hoarding toward carbon neutrality, a discussion on the existing eco-depleting activities is necessary. The paper, therefore, strives to understand the direct causes of why the farmers are adopting these practices and briefly outlines the current rice straw (RS)-based biogas plants that have been commissioned by the Indian government and explore the lab-scale interventions done on rice straw valorization, and tries to suggest a sustainable solution for agro-waste management and climate change mitigation.