VietNamNet Bridge - Smoke from burning stacks of straw and waste in fields on the outskirts of Hanoi occurs annually, causing risks to people's health and traffic safety.

Hanoi farmers said that they had to burn straw after rice harvests as there was no storage for straw and few households keep straw as feed for buffaloes and cows. 

They burn straw to make fertilizer for the next crops. Ash is kept on the barren ground until it has turned into fertilizer. The process takes about three months.

They said that this was the only way they know to dispose of straw for years, although they knew that smoke is annoying and harmful. 

Experts said that straw burning would cause dust pollution, a very harmful type of pollution, as dust enters the lungs and causes respiratory diseases, even cancer. In this case, wearing masks doesn't help.

Agricultural experts warned that burning straw on fields would kill needed insects and cause ecological imbalances on the land.

To solve the problem, many agricultural experts have studied methods of converting straw into organic fertiliser using a pro-biotics method. The Institute of Biotechnology under Vietnam Academic Institute of Science and Technology has successfully studied methods of treating straw. As estimated, a farmer could save up to VND500,000 (US$23.2) in buying NPK fertilizer by creating one ton of organic fertilizer from straw.

The technology was transferred to Hanoi and the northern provinces of Hoa Binh, Bac Giang, Bac Ninh, Thai Binh and Nam Dinh. However, the use of the new methods was not well accepted.

Hanoi's straw smoke in pictures:

Photo: Dan Tri

Le Ha