This video from Punjab, India, provides an interesting counter-argument to those trying to prevent farmers form burning their residues after harvest. Many smallholders are not able to cover the cost of happy seeders, or other alternatives to burning. Some alternatives leave the land unable to be replanted for months, while burned land can be replanted much earlier.
Larger farms are more capable of covering the cost of heavy machinery etc to reduce burning on their land. Farmers also argue that governments place a disproportionate amount of blame on farmers for air pollution in cities where they claim in this video that it only amounts to 6% of total air pollution.
It is clear that pollution from factories, vehicles and other sources do have a significant impact on air quality. However, one must work at reducing this from all sectors, including agriculture.