Fertiliser lessons for sustainable farming

IN PERSPECTIVE

India, along with 26 other countries, at the Glasgow summit on climate change signed the ‘Sustainable Agriculture Policy Action Agenda (SAPAA)’ focusing on the country’s food systems against the onslaught of climate change on biodiversity. It is important to note here that while Indian agriculture is undoubtedly adversely impacted by climate change, the country is also an important contributor to greenhouse gases (GHGs). According to the Third Biennial Update Report submitted by India to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in early 2021, the Indian agricultural sector is responsible for 14% of the total GHGs. As much as 19.1% of the total GHGs arises from unscientific and wasteful fertiliser application to agricultural soils. Simply put, the highly chemical-centric farming — euphemistically known as the “green revolution” — is behind this scenario, the most important culprit being the emission of nitrous oxide, a byproduct of urea (the key nitrogen fertiliser applied to all crops in India) hydrolysis in soils. About 30-35% of global warming is contributed by this GHG.

The government follows an excessive subsidy in favour of urea vis-a-vis the balanced approach to plant nutrition, considering major and micronutrients. Its soil health card system has penetrated Indian agriculture. But, it still follows the routine and time-worn systems of soil testing. The recent advances in fertiliser management conforming to the revolutionary technique, now globally known as ‘The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept’, is far out from the ambit of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in New Delhi or state agricultural universities. But the concept has been approved as a benchmark for soil testing in the case of Kansas State University, USA, in its very ambitious multi-million dollar field project by the USAID (United States Aid For International Development) for soil testing in the whole of West Africa, whose anthropogenic situation compares very well with that of India.

Two factors that propped up the green revolution are the unbridled use of chemical fertilisers, followed by indiscriminate irrigation. The all-around lowering of the water table in India is the most blatant outcome of this. “Irrigate the crop not the land” and “more crop per drop” should be the guiding principles in water use.

Soil carbon, the most important soil fertility index, has steeply declined over the years in the soils of the state. Soil fertility enriching crops like arhar, soybean and white clover must take precedence with assured MSP support.

The ambitious GOI target of 500 GW of non-fossil energy by 2030 must include potential agriculture sector upfront. Currently, the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha evam Utthan Mahabhiyan (PM—KUSUM) scheme aims to improve irrigation access and raise farmers’ income through solar-powered irrigation. However, with the highly subsidised irrigation (free electricity), farmers in Punjab are unwilling to switch to solar-powered energy sources. Setting up solar-powered plants on farmlands and solarising the existing grid-connected pumps could earn additional income to farmers, besides making them net energy producers.

Digital agriculture

Increased use of mobile and smartphones to access farm-related information, to raise farm productivity and farmer income, for risk management and better market access has tremendous potential. Meghdoot, a pan India application to access agromet (agriculture plus meteorology) information, is quite popular.

The Union Budget has found resonance in the pervasive opinion that the highly chemical-centric farming must be gradually phased out from Indian soil. The Budget proposals reflect this when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Chemical-free natural farming will be promoted throughout the country, with a focus on farmers’ lands in a 5-km wide corridor along the Ganga, at the first stage.” The prime minister has been talking about Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF).

The government aims to integrate chemical-free approach into a long-term policy by including it in the agricultural curriculum. The GOI has sanctioned support for converting 4 lakh additional hectares of farm land in eight states to implement this method under the scheme ‘Parampara Krishi Vikas Yojana’.

One must be extremely cautious in moving towards totally chemical-free farming in India. The recent experience of Sri Lanka must be an eye-opener for India, when farmers took up the cudgels against the government which banned the import of all chemical fertilisers. Plants take up soil nutrients in chemically charged ionic form. It is not how much fertiliser is applied that counts, but how best. The Nutrient Buffer Power Concept assumes great importance in this context since it is a revolutionary idea in fertiliser management.

(The writer is a former professor, National Science Foundation, The Royal
Society, Belgium)