Government interventions can reduce deadly air pollution in South Asia, study finds

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Air pollution, driven in large part by practices like crop burning, contributes to 2 million deaths a year in South Asia and persists as a public health emergency. But a new study co-led by Brown University researcher Gemma Dipoppa found that government incentives may be able to curb the illegal practice of crop burning, according to a study published in the journal Nature.

In South Asia, farmers often burn leftover material from harvesting crops to clear their fields for the next planting season. The method is efficient and cost-effective but has devastating effects on air quality and health and contributes to 40% to 60% of the total air pollution in the region during the winter harvest season, Dipoppa said.

"This is a very clear health emergency, and we wondered, 'Why isn't the government able to address this challenge, which is visible and extremely damaging for people?'" said Dipoppa, an assistant professor of political science at Brown, who co-authored the paper with Saad Gulzar of Princeton University.

"We decided to study the aspect of government intervention and in particular the administration of the state that is in charge of reducing air pollution from a big-picture point of view."

Through their analysis of a decade of wind, fire and health data from satellites and surveys, Dipoppa and Gulzar found that government officials in India and Pakistan were more likely to reduce crop residue burning when its negative effects were felt in their own jurisdictions rather than outside of them: crop-burning fires increased by 15% when wind was most likely to direct pollution to neighboring jurisdictions and decreased by 14.5% when it polluted their own, the study found.

The researchers found that government-led actions against burning, such as fines for those violating the law, deterred future polluters and reduced fires by an additional 13%, a finding that contradicted a common perception that the widespread problem is impossible to control.

"Government officials are already acting on this issue, but they are doing it only in times and places where it is incentive-compatible for them, including when the pollution affects their own jurisdictions and not neighboring areas," Dipoppa said.

"This is important because it tells us that government leaders do have the power to reduce crop burning. If they had more resources, they would probably be capable of reducing pollution to a larger extent."

The problem of air pollution from crop burning is especially prevalent at the border between India and Pakistan, where there is a lack of coordination between jurisdictions, Dipoppa added.

As part of the study, the researchers also examined the effects of crop-burning pollution on infant and child mortality and estimated that that 1.5 to 2.7 deaths per 1,000 children could be prevented if action were taken to reduce crop fires.

"We hope that this paper can contribute to the public debate on how to address this widespread problem," Dipoppa said. "Government leaders can explore punishment, incentives, information campaigns and many other initiatives that will encourage farmers to find alternative solutions to burning."

More information: Gemma Dipoppa et al, Bureaucrat incentives reduce crop burning and child mortality in South Asia, Nature (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08046-z

Journal information: Nature

Provided by Brown University