ROHTAK, Oct. 6 -- Haryana appears to be making an early breakthrough in its battle against paddy stubble burning, with the state recording just four farm-fire incidents till October 3, even as the paddy harvesting season gathers pace. According to the latest data of consortium for research on agroecosystem monitoring and modeling from space (CREAMS) laboratory at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) tracks daily paddy residue burning events across key Indian states using polar-orbiting satellite sensors. A total 218 burning events were detected in the six states between September 15 to October 4, Punjab has witnessed the highest 79 incidents followed by 70 in Madhya Pradesh, 59 in Uttar Pradesh and 4 each in Haryana and Rajasthan and one each in Delhi and Uttarakhand. According to the ground level officers and farmers, the sharp decline is not merely the result of enforcement. An emerging market for paddy straw is giving farmers an incentive to remove the residue from their fields instead of setting it on fire and quick ex-situ management of the millions of tonnes of thecrop waste with highly subsidised machines is the another key factor behind why the farmers left burning the crop waste. In several parts of Haryana, private operators are now entering fields with balers, collecting the straw and transporting it to industries that use it as biomass fuel or raw material. This year a new straw-collection business has emerged in villages that were once considered stubble-burning hotspots. The operators have deployed tractors and cover thousands of acres a day, transporting bales to factories involved in bottling, cardboard and dyeing, among other industries. Sachin Kumar a farmer from Yamunanagar, who have started the crop waste business this year said, "I have procured crop straw of around 200 acres so far. We have a long list of farmers waiting for their turn to get their crop waste. There is a huge demand for the paddy residue waste due to setting up of the several plants which convert crop waste into dense, high-energy fuel pellets." "Strict enforcement have helped reduce such incidents significantly in recent years. The practice could be further curbed if Haryana and Punjab fully implement their 2018 orders mandating SMS-equipped combine harvesters, said former ICAR principal scientist...