Conservation agriculture (CA) is an agricultural management practice in which there is minimum soil disturbance, retention of residue for soil cover and rotation of major crops. In contrast, soil in traditional agriculture is intensively tilled to prepare a fine and well-pulverized seedbed. Soil tillage or land preparation is the most energy-consuming operation among all field operations. Compared to traditional agriculture, farmers can save up to 40% of time, labour and fuels in CA.

Biomass-based power project developers have been facing challenges such as increasing raw material costs, low tariffs, inadequate power evacuation infrastructure etc. While the developers have sought tariff revisions, the issues related to evacuation facilities has not been on the priority list of state governments.

Black carbon (BC) emissions from China are of global concern. A new BC emission inventory (PKU-BC(China)) has been developed with the following improvements: (1) The emission factor database was updated; (2) a 0.1° × 0.1° gridded map was produced for 2007 based on county-level proxies; (3) time trends were derived for 1949–2007 and predicted for 2008–2050; and (4) the uncertainties associated with the inventory were quantified. It was estimated that 1957 Gg of BC were emitted in China in 2007, which is greater than previously reported.

Crop residue burning is one among the many sources of air pollution. It is essential to mitigate impacts due to the burning of agricultural waste in the open fields and its consequent effects on soil, ambient air and living organisms.