ABSTRACT
In northern China, most peasant farmers manage their crop stubble by burning. In the summer and autumn harvest seasons, smoke and fire can be seen everywhere in crop fields. They come from the burning of crop stubble and spoil the landscape. They seriously affect the environment, production, life, human health and public security; they impede traffic flow and reduce visibility, forcing airports and expressways to close and interrupting traffic. They pollute the air, causing respiratory problems for nearby residents, and adversely affect their normal life; they trigger fire disasters, destroy communications and power-supply lines and cause life and property losses. Crop stubble burning has become bad practice and also a public hazard. Various strata of society have been complaining for some time and urging the government to ban it. In order to ban crop stubble burning, the relevant government departments have introduced regulations in recent years, and the regional governments have also adoptedmany measures and made great efforts to resolve the situation, but to little avail. Banning crop stubble burning has become a thorny problem for the grassroots Party committees and governments. The city of Jiaozuo lies in the northwestern area of Henan Province. With
the Taihang mountains in the north and the Yellow river in the south, the city has been noted for its agricultural development. It is one of the three major, high-yield, grain-producing regions in China. As the people’s living conditions improve and the state’s industrial policy adjusts, crop stubble burning has become increasingly hazardous. With a total cultivated area of 2.72 million mu and a total crop-sown area of 4.4 million mu, the city produces 2.32 million tons of crop stubble a year, of which 1.12 million tons or 48.4 per cent is burnt in the open air. The issue of crop stubble burning is an extremely serious problem and has provoked widespread public anger. As instructed by the central and Henan provincial governments, the Jiaozuo municipal Party committee and government believed after conscientious investigations that a ban on crop stubble burning would help protect the environment and resources and would serve the interests of both the country and the people. It was an inevitable move for the city to take. In 2000, the city officials decided to launch a campaign against crop stubble burning, with a view to a total ban within 3 years.
