The state of Punjab offers a window into India’s stubble-burning struggle. The state’s farms generate about 20 million tons of paddy straw each year, says Mushtaq Ahmed, CEO of Neway Renewable Energy. They only have about 40 days to clear the waste before the next wheat-growing season. And because the paddy harvest falls in September and October, the fog that develops as temperatures fall in the subsequent months brings the smoke down too, resulting in heavy smog. Nationally, India’s farms generate 500 million metric tons of agricultural waste every year — the weight of 100 million adult elephants.

The impact of air pollution on the health of Indians is increasingly clear. A 2017 study by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago had estimated that New Delhi residents would live nine years longer if the city met WHO air quality standards. The federal government last year announced a scheme that will focus on conversion of farm waste into bio-slurry, bio-gas and bio-CNG and is estimated to cover 700 districts in 2018–19. The center and several north Indian states also have introduced a ban on stubble burning, and are encouraging farmers to buy partly subsidized but expensive straw-chopping machines at an average cost of nearly $2,000. Most farmers defy the ban, and Ahmed insists there’s no point blaming them unless they’re given alternatives that work. It’s precisely those alternatives that the startups are offering — each with a different strategy and model.

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