Key Points
• Stubble burning is valued by some farmers as a rapid, economic, and relatively environmentally benign way of dealing with crop residues without the need for removal of straw by baling or for stubble chopping followed by relatively intensive cultivation.
• Stubble burning is becoming less common as the area of cropping land decreases and farmers adopt other residue management techniques at different stages of the cropping rotation.
• New Zealand’s high yielding cereal crops produce much higher quantities of crop residue per hectare than in other countries. The greater the quantity of crop residue, the bigger the challenge of establishing the following crop in its presence.
• Production of high value seed crops such as ryegrass make a much more significant contribution to the economic sustainability of arable farming in New Zealand than in countries where stubble burning is not practised.
• Stubble burning is the only crop residue management method able to meet all of the prerequisites for sustainable rotations that include the production of small-seeded crops.
• There may be scope for farmers, and regional authorities to work together on further development of codes of good practice to reduce nuisance created by smoke discharge.
No. 102 The role of stubble burning in New Zealand cropping systems
