Farmers in north China's Hebei province now pay to have crop stalks pulverized instead of burning them to reduce pollution, local officials report.

The back-to-the-earth method will help enrich farmland and will cause no air pollution, says Ma Yanjun, a farmer who bought a 6, 000 yuan (720 US dollars) machine for this purpose. Some farmers around the cities of Beijing and Tianjin are also using the new eco-friendly method.

The over 600 million tons of crop stalks left in China every year used to be used for cattle and horse fodder and for fuel by farmers. And, when coal and liquefied gas began to take their place, farmers just burned the stubble. In September of 1997, the large-scale burning of stubble kept three airplanes from landing at Shijiazhuang Airport because of low visibility, and the proportion of carbon monoxide was four to five time higher than normal at that time.

Zhang Wenjun, head of the Hebei Agricultural Machinery Administration, says that to solve the problem they have allocated 10 million yuan this year to help farmers buy pulverizing machines at a cost of 2,000 yuan each in the city of Shijiazhuang.

The Agriculture and Finance Ministries have increased allocations for research on the use of stalks and have implemented restrictions on burning in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai and in Jiangsu and Hebei provinces.