Management of crop residues with special reference to the on-farm utilization methods: A review

Crop residues (CRs) are defined as the plant parts left in the field after harvesting the economic part of the agricultural crops. Every year a huge quantity, more than 5 billion mega grams of the agricultural residue is produced globally. The possible options to utilize these crop residues include its use as animal feed, production of bioenergy, biochar, substrate for mushroom cultivation, household fuel and making boards, etc. However, these activities consume only a minor fraction of the total production and require collection, bundling and transportation, which is a labor-intensive affair. Hence to save time and cost of transportation from field to the end users, CR is burnt on site in many countries causing tremendous air pollution and also restricts recycling of the valuable nutrients back to the soil. Proper utilization of this large quantity of CRs on the farm is a great challenge. Surface retention, in situ incorporation and ex situ composting are three promising on-farm management options to sustain soil health in long-term as well as to address the issue of residue burning. By means of this paper an attempt has been made to highlight the importance of on-farm utilization methods in comparison with the other methods and some key researchable issues to overcome its limitations are also discussed.