Agriculture World December 2019

RNI No. DELENG/2015/65174 Postal Reg. No DL-SW-1/4191/19-21 Published on 25th & Posted on 27-28 at NDPSO in Advance Month

AGRICULTURE WORLD

ISSN 2455-8184

AGRICULTURE

WORLD

VOLUME 5 ISSUE 12 DECEMBER 2019 ₹ 100

New Approach to Fertilizer Sector

the pulse of global agriculture

Grain by Grain

ROLE OF MICROBES in Soil Health and Fertility www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 1

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Somani Seeds Advt.

2 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 3

the pulse of global agriculture

Editor-in-Chief MC Dominic

Digital Media Head Nishant Kr. Taak

Directors Shiny Dominic MG Vasan

Digital Media Team Prashant Sharma Chunki Bhutia

Editor Head PR & Communication Dr. Lakshmi Unnithan

Circulation Head Abdus Samad

Head Operations Sanjay Kumar

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Sr. Circulation Manager Rahul Singh Sr. Circulation Executives

President Marketing Ravindra Kumar Teotia V. P. Intl. Business DD Nair (Russia & CIS Countries) 6 Mikluho-Maklaya STR, Moscow, Russia 117198 Mob: +7903729 98 30, Tel: +7499501 99 10 Email: ddnair@krishijagran.com

Sr. V.P. Spcl. Initiative Chander Mohan Sr. Manager Special Initiatives Harsh Kapoor Content Writer Abha Anjali Toppo Anitha Jegadeesan Lisha Anna Correspondent Vivek Rai Manisha Sharma Sippu Kumar Pronami Chetia Deputy General Manager Sara Khan Sr. Marketing Managers Megha Sharma Poonam Biswakarma Marketing Executive Divya S Kaimal Head Pre-Press Yogesh Kumar Sr. Graphic Designer Atul Batham Graphic Designer Nasim Ansari

4 | DECEMBER 2019

Sujeet Pal Tarun Singh Avdhesh Yadav Pappu Rai Manoj Kumar Accounts Lakshmi Ratheesh Supporting Staff Devender Singh Pramod Singh Rabindra Jana

Printed and Published by: M. C. Dominic 60/9, 3rd Floor, Yusuf Sarai Market, Near Green Park Metro Station, New Delhi 110016.

Tel: 011-26511845, 26517923 Mobile: +91-9313301029, +91-9654193353 Web: www.krishijagran.com Printed at: Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. Shed No. 203, 204, DSIDC Complex Indl. Area Phase-I New Delhi- 110020 All rights reserved.

Copyright @ Krishi Jagran Media Group.

Agriculture World is published

by Krishi Jagran Media Group.

Editor in Chief: MC Dominic Content Disclaimer.

Please note that the information in this magazine, does not make any claims.

Agriculture World has made a constant care to make sure that the content is accurate. and the views expressed in the articles reflect the author(s) opinions.

Images Courtesy https://unsplash.com/

Contents

18.

New Approach to Fertilizer Sector

Satish Chander

22.

Reforming Indian Fertiliser (Urea) Sector

Sugandha Arora Sardana & Vinay Trivedi

28.

Grain by Grain:

Green Rating of the Fertilizer Sector Centre for Science and Environment

34.

Soil Testing Scenario in India and Its Significance in the Balanced Use of Fertilisers

Hari Mohan Meena1, R. P. Sharma and Roohi

42.

Soil Health Card Scheme Impacts and Recommendations

Suresh Ediga

48.

Larry Korn (1949 -2019) World Messenger of Natural Farming

Bharat Mansata

50.

On-farm Microbial Resource Management Holds Promise for Agricultural Sustainability

Dhananjaya P. Singh

57.

Role of Microbes in Soil Health and Fertility

Dr. GV Ramanjaneyulu

60.

Strengthening Research to Farm Extension Channels Preeti Bharti, Sheetal Sharma and Judith Carla Dela Torre

64.

Nano Fertilizers is a new way to increase Nutrients use efficiency in Crop Production

Meena Dharam Singh, Gautam Chirag, Patidar Om Prakash, Meena Hari Mohan, Prakasha G and Vishwajith

70.

Silicon Nutrition in Rice

C. Krithika and B. Balaganesh

76.

Climate-Resilience Farming in Salineaffected regions of Haryana

Pawan Kumar

81.

Thumboor Paddy Collective Farmers in Dilemma

~ Dr. Lakshmi Unnithan www.krishijagran.com

Editorial

AGRICULTURE WORLD

I

ndian farmers have served the country well during the last forty-five years. They not only ensured the food security of this vast country but also generated large surplus for exports of food grains and other commodities earning valuable foreign exchange. But these quantitative achievements have now been over shadowed by a number of adverse developments writes Mr Satish Chander.Keeping in view the above discussion, theme of the FAI Annual Seminar 2019 has been kept ‘New Approach to Fertilizer Sector’.

This Seminar which will be held during 2-4 December, 2019.Sugandha Arora & Vinay Trivedi on how to Reform Indian Fertiliser (Urea) Sector. Their writings emphasize on facts that Urea is a highly subsidised commodity since government has for long controlled the market price of urea in order to make it affordable to farmers. However, urea’s low price has led to its excessive use in agriculture. They reiterate on facts that the government needs to bring a measure of decontrol in the sector.

Decontrolling will promote balanced fertilizer use, improved soil health , reduce subsidy burden and bring competitiveness. Grain by Grain the report by CSE gives us an idea of the Green Rating of the Fertilizer Sector Centre for Science and Environment .Soil Testing Scenario in India and Its Significance reassures that soil testing is guiding the farmers regarding the balanced and judicious use of the fertilisers, which will ultimately reduce the overall costs and finally mitigate the consequences of the global warming.

Suresh Ediga explains in his article all about Soil Health Card Scheme and its Impacts and Recommendations. He ends the article with an unequivocal NO, soil health cards cannot really benefit the farmers - at least as things stand as of today. Aw remembers Larry is no longer with us in flesh and blood. But surely, his dedication and invaluable contribution to the cause of natural farming will continue to inspire many for a very long time.Dhananjaya Singh explains about On-farm Microbial Resource Management that Holds Promise for Agricultural Sustainability and Dr Ramanjaneyulu explains about the Role of Microbes in Soil Health and Fertility.Preeti Bharti, Sheetal Sharma, and Judith Carla Dela Torre reports about Different extension approaches that have been used to bridge the knowledge gap between researchers and farmers.

The next article about Nano Fertilizers is an eyeopener about the new way to increase Nutrients use efficiency in Crop Production. Karthika an Balaganesh writes about the importance of Silicon Nutrition in Rice. Pawan Kumar details on the Climate-Resilience Farming in Saline-affected regions of Haryana. From these awe inspiring articles curated for this issue we need to understand the importance of our deteriorating soil health and over-exploitation of natural resources like water and try to be as sustainable as possible for the well being of the Indian Agriculture and Our Planet.

MC Dominic Editor-in-Chief www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 5

AGRICULTURE WORLD

6 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

From the Editors Desk

T

o sustainably feed nearly 10 billon people by 2050 while reducing nutrient losses, we need to make fertilizers more efficient and accessibility. Agrarian crisis is still at a peak here in India.

Economic viability of agriculture and farmers’ income, the deteriorating soil health and over-exploitation of natural resources like water and imprudent use of inputs has not only affected the crop yields but has raised environmental and sustainability issues. Fragmentation of land holdings has also prevented penetration of modern technology in farm practices. .

Overhauling the policy environment of this vital sector is critical to viability of Indian agriculture. As organic fertilisers and compost come with a much lower environmental footprint than synthetic fertilisers, their use must be promoted through suitable policies. Bio-fertilisers are one product that can be profitable to industry and farmers as well as being less harmful to the environment, While the fertiliser industry is already producing and selling bio-fertiliser. Using science and technology is one way to help farmers out. Digital tools are also being developed to enhance the application of fertilizer.

Government and fertilizer industry need to take a lead in spreading awareness amongst farmers about the most efficient methods of fertilizer application to reduce excessive use of nitrogenous fertilizers. Also, there is a need for significant investment in research and development (R&D) to promote efficient practices and sustainable technologies. We request the Govt and all other organisations to join hands with Agriculture World in spreading awareness about the most efficient methods of fertilizer application to reduce excessive use of nitrogenous fertilizers.

Dr. Lakshmi Unnithan

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 7

International News

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Resilience

to the impacts of climate change. This technology has been proven to require less time and effort than the traditional method of broadcasting by hand.

mallholder farmers in Nepal tend to apply fertilizer by hand, spreading it as they walk through the field. Under this practice, fertilizer is dispersed randomly and is therefore unevenly distributed among all the seedlings. A recently introduced method, however, helps farmers spread fertilizer in a more uniform, faster and easier way.

The precision spreader is a hand-operated device that ensures an even distribution of fertilizer and is easy to operate.

Better distribution of fertilizer in the fields results in a higher chance of healthier crops, which are the source of better nutrition.

S

This technology is endorsed by the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA), a project led by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) which helps Nepalese farmers adapt measures that are efficient, effective and resilient

Precision Fertiliser Spreader

T

wo Australian companies have joined forces with an agreement to deliver a world-first fully autonomous precision fertiliser spreader for farming. Central Queensland based autonomous technology company SwarmFarm Robotics is developing autonomous fertiliser spreaders with Western Australian based spreader manufacturer Roesener last week.

Roesener has already commercially released, multiple applications ranging from optical spot spraying of weeds, blanket spraying and mowing apps on board the SwarmBot platform. These are fully autonomous and unmanned field operations working on commercial farms.

Variable rate spreading of agricultural inputs is the most utilised form of precision agriculture around the world, so the partnership with Roesner is a logical step to close the link between spreading operations and autonomous agriculture.

8 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 9

International News

D

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Nano Technology

r Greg Walker, of the University of Otago, Newzealand is involved with a project that has secured a $1million grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's Endeavour fund to apply nanotechnology to agriculture to increase productivity and reduce environmental impacts. They would develop a "ground-breaking" nano-coating which could be applied to fertiliser to control its rate of release into soil, and to seeds to control their timing of germination.

The team would initially focus on understanding the science of the new polyester nano-coating and its biodegradation, then apply the technology for controlled release fertilisers and delayed seed germination in partnership with companies and organisations such as Ravensdown and the Foundation for Arable Research. It could also be applied to seeds to control the timing of germination. They could also sow two crops at once - one with uncoated seeds, and the other with coated seeds, to delay germination until after the first crop has matured or been harvested.

Soil Scout’s sensor

T

his Finnish startup is the first to transmit critical soil data wirelessly from underground in real-time. Helps reduce irrigation water and energy use by up to 50%.

Johannes Tiusanen, a 19th generation farmer, a doctor in agrotechnology, built the system to give farmers the data they need to become precision agriculture specialists, both conserving water resources and increasing yields on their land over

10 | DECEMBER 2019

the long-term. Soil Scout’s sensor is capable of transmitting moisture, temperature, and salinity data in near real-time from up to 2 meters below the surface, for up to 20 years, maintenance-free.

Moreover, these sensors allow both farmers and turf professionals alike to gain a detailed picture of their soil quality while leaving topsoil, pitches, and greens undisturbed.

www.krishijagran.com

International News

AGRICULTURE WORLD

FeSeRWAM

T

he Fertilizer and Seed Recommendation for West Africa Map, abbreviated FeSeRWAM, will be a Geographical Information System (GIS) web-based platform capturing, storing, and visualizing recommendations data on seeds and fertilizers. The primary advantage provided by this tool for market actors in the seed and fertilizer value chains is that it opens new paths for the dissemination, sharing, display, and processing of their spatial information on the Internet.

The FeSeRWAM will provide low-cost and efficient ways of delivering recommendations information on seeds and fertilizers to farmers in our region.

NAFAKA Project and Zanzibar Rice Farmers

A

Technology introduced to the island of Zanzibar, off the coast of Tanzania, was urea deep placement (UDP). UDP involves placing briquettes of urea, a colorless, crystalline fertilizer, deep below the soil surface by hand or using a machine. Placing it near the plants’ roots prevents the fertilizer from evaporating or washing away in run-off. In 2013, the Feed the Future Tanzania Staples Value Chain (NAFAKA) project, funded by USAID and implemented by ACDI/VOCA, teamed up with the Zanzibar Rice Agricultural Institute to run a trial using UDP with rice farmers in Zanzibar’s Pemba and Unguja islands.

Future NAFAKA II: Cereals Market System Development project, a follow-on to the original project, gave a local agribusiness a $15,000 grant to construct a factory for producing UDP briquettes and buy the necessary machinery. The agribusiness can now produce three tons of briquettes daily and supply 1,000 tons of briquettes to Zanzibar farmers each year. This will meet 70 percent of the demand for fertilizer among farmers in Zanzibar’s Pemba and Unguja islands, according to the Zanzibar Agricultural Research Institute.

The NAFAKA project also trained farmers in good agricultural practices. During the trial, paddy yields grew by 15 to 30 percent, and farmers lowered their costs by 26 to 35 percent because they no longer needed as much manual labor. They also saw less soil erosion on their farms because they had fewer labors doing weeding, line transplanting, and pest control. In May 2018, the Feed the www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 11

International News

AGRICULTURE WORLD

A Western Australian agtech start-up

A

Western Australian agtech start-up which aims to replace the soil probe and improve the profitability of fertiliser decisions has received $1.2 million in seed funding. Laconik moves away from predicting responsiveness by taking a single soil test from a single site location and and extrapolating that result across an entire paddock to recommend fertiliser rates.

Machine learning combined with farm data, such as yield and rotation history, allows us to make the most profitable management recommendation of where and how much fertiliser should be added to the crop to maximise profitable yield potential. This is a data driven approach because it allows us to understand spatial variability.

Field Analyzer

A

ugmenta, an Athens-based agritech startup, has raised $2.5 million seed funding to improve the life of farmers through automated precision software that retrofits to existing farming equipment. He and co-founder George Varvarelis have introduced a solution that automates feritilisation seamlessly, laying an AI-driven camera system on top of existing farming equipment. Six to twelve multispectral cameras are installed to fit the farmer’s machinery.

12 | DECEMBER 2019

Using instant imaging and AI, the “Field Analyzer” system determines how much fertiliser each inch of land needs, and then actually applies it by controlling the machinery release/pace. The result is higher quality crop, higher quantity crop, and lower amounts of fertiliser and the costs associated. An equally large selling point is that, after installing the system, farmers don’t need to change their practices at all.

www.krishijagran.com

International News

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Fertilizer Canada and Tractors

F

ertilizer Canada and Tractors for Africa signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), intended to advance sustainable agriculture in Ghana as part of the 4R Solution Project.

Rate, Right Time, Right Place®) into fertiliser management practices in order to increase incomes for up to 80,000 smallholder farmers, particularly women.

The project is supported by Global Affairs Canada and focuses on the incorporation of the 4R Nutrient Stewardship (Right Source @ Right

This project will improve commitment to improve food security, promote climate smart agriculture and support the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

B

BIOCHAR

iochar, form of charcoal made from animal wastes and plant residues (such as wood chips, leaves, and husks) that undergo pyrolysis, a process that rapidly decomposes organic material through anaerobic heating. A technique practiced for many centuries by tribes of the Amazon Rainforest, the production of biochar is traditionally used in land-clearing activities and soil enrichment.

Biochar is also useful for sequestering carbon by circumventing the normal decomposition process or acting as a fertilizer to enhance the sequestration rate of growing biomass. As a result, many scientists and environmentalists consider

www.krishijagran.com

the production of biochar as a potential geoengineering technique. In normal decomposition processes, as organic matter breaks down, the microbes acting upon the material use oxygen and release carbon dioxide (CO2). If, however, the material were “cooked” in the absence of oxygen, it would decompose rapidly through pyrolysis.

In the process, little or no CO2 would be released, and the bulk of the organic material would harden into a kind of porous charcoal, essentially sequestering the carbon as a solid. Biochar mixed with soils might serve as a fertilizer, thus further increasing the carbon-sequestration potential of plants growing in the soil.Its ability to reduce CO2 concentrations at global scales is a matter of some debate.

DECEMBER 2019 | 13

National News

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Nano-Technology Products: IFFCO

I

FFCO Introduces Nano-Technology Based Products for On-field Trials to Reduce Chemical Fertiliser Usage. IFFCO has launched its ‘nano-technology’ based products i.e. nano nitrogen, nano zinc & nano copper for on-field trials in order to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers and increase farmers’ income.

These environment-friendly products have been introduced for the very first time in India & have potential to cut usage of conventional chemical fertilizers by 50% besides increasing crop output by 15 to 30%.

Ammonia Industry

I

ndia’s ammonia capacity is expected to witness double digit growth over the next six years, says GlobalData. India’s ammonia plant capacity is forecasted to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.3% from 15.610 million tpy in 2017 to 25.491 million tpy in 2022, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

The company’s report: ‘Ammonia Industry Outlook in India to 2022 - Market Size, Company Share, Price Trends, Capacity Forecasts of All Active and Planned Plants’ reveals that 17 upcoming projects are expected to commence their production by 2022.

country. The average price of ammonia in India is expected to increase at a CAGR of 3.9% from US$296.9/t in 2017 to US$359.0/t in 2022.During 2008 to 2017, India has been a net importer of ammonia.

According to GlobalData’s outlook, it is expected to continue on similar trend with imports being higher than exports until 2022.Imports as percentage of demand in the year 2008 was 9.6%. According to a GlobalData forecast, imports as percentage of demand is expected to decrease from 15.8% in 2017 to 8.1% in 2022.

Some of the major projects are–Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Kalol Ammonia Plant , Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Kakinada Ammonia Plant , and Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Sindri Complex Ammonia Plant.

Indian Farmers Fertilisers Coop Ltd, National Fertilizers Ltd, Krishak Bharati Co-operative Ltd, Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, and Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd together accounted for 58.3% of the ammonia capacity in India in 2017. In India, the main segments that consume ammonia are urea and ammonium phosphate. In 2017, these segments accounted for almost 93.8% of the ammonia demand in the 14 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

National News

inc has critical functions in plant growth; about 10% of proteins in biological systems need zinc for their stability and function. Zinc is also required for the biosynthesis of proteins and for better pollen viability.

Bronzing of leaves-chlorotic areas may turn bronze coloured. Plants that are deficient in zinc are highly sensitive to high light or radiation intensity, heat, drought and pathogenic infections. Plants having a good Zn status show better tolerance to pathogenic attack. At times plants show significant decreases in their yield capacity without showing visual zinc deficiency symptoms.

The visible symptoms include Chlorosis - yellowing of leaves; often interveinal; in some species, young leaves are the most affected, Necrotic spots - death of leaf tissue on areas of chlorosis;and

Therefore, it is important to ensure and maintain a good zinc nutritional status in crop plants. Today, 2 billion people suffer from zinc deficiencies. This is due to the cereals that are inherently low in zinc;.

Z

ZINC

Fertigation

W

ith a quarter of the world’s population across 17 countries already living in regions of extremely high water stressthere seems to be a pressing need to use fertigation to help grow enough food in many parts of the world including in India, the Middle East and North Africa.

While fertigation is already widely used in some areas, such as in 80% of Israel’s 200,000 ha of irrigated land, with the right infrastructure already in a considerable amount of farmland, there are significant opportunities for wider scale adoption.Technology is helping to make fertigation easier and more efficient.

www.krishijagran.com

A growing range of optical, multispectral and soilbased sensors can measure plant stress in addition to nutrient content both in the canopy and at the root zone. This data can then be fed to smartphone-based decision support systems apps, which also use algorithm-based modeling to give advice on crops’ water and fertilizer requirements tailored to specific areas in a field, with intelligent automated delivery systems administering the results.

To help feed the world and smallholders thrive, the future of sustainable agriculture looks increasingly fertigated.

DECEMBER 2019 | 15

AGRICULTURE WORLD

National News

T

Judicious Use of Fertilizers

he Government and ICAR came together to awake farmers on the judicious use of fertilizers. This is a Bi-annual Fertilizer Application Awareness Program at ICAR campus ,Pusa in New Delhi. The event was jointly organized

by Ministries each year the help of State Governments. Thousands of farmers had assembled in the New Hall at ICAR campus to listen to the awareness schedules and safe and judicious usage of fertilizers.

Improper and unmindful use of urea should be curtailed drastically, or otherwise it leads to an oxidation- reduction processes occurring in the soil due to poor activity of beneficial bacteria and other micro-organisms. There would be no plant nutrients and minerals that would be available to the plants From talking to farmers we understand that there is excessive use of urea and DAP into the soil, without understanding its harmful effects.

These are all becoming a big struggle for the environment. Ultimately all these leads to Global Warming. Ensuring judicious use of Urea in agriculture is the need at the moment.

This is ultimately leading to over exploitation of our soil, leaching of fertilizers into the soil as well as deficiencies caused by micronutrients, increasing incidence of pests and diseases.

Neem coated Urea, water dissolvable mixed fertilizer, use of value added Nitrogen fertilizers, addition of crop residue and Bio-fertilizers could play an important role in this regard.

Mycorrhizae-based Biofertilizers: A Natural alternative to Chemical Fertilizers

M

ycorrhiza is a biofertilizer that helps in promotion of plant growth in an environment friendly manner as well as providing several other benefits to cultivation of plants. TERI’s In Vitro Mass Production Technology offers the commercial production of viable,

16 | DECEMBER 2019

healthy, genetically pure and high quality mycorrhiza without contamination in sterile environment using very less space. Competitively priced product formulations of tablets, granules and powder forms have been developed for end users.

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

National News

Judicious Use of Fertilizers

S

eed cum fertilizer drill machine has a different utility in all such machines, due to which the farmers started to work very easily. With the help of seed cum fertilizer drill machine, the seeds can be sown in many queues together. This machine can sow seed deep inside the soil. With its help, farmers can sow seeds at a reasonable distance.

It can sow the seeds and fertilizers simultaneously in a ratio. It also saves labour cost. With the help of seed cum fertilizer drill machine, the labor of the farmers also survives.

When the seeds are sown in a depth in a soil then the seed is not defective and it is also good for its gathering. With proper fertilizer and seed in the same proportion, the right nutrient through the roots of the plants reaches right amount of plants.

It can also be used everywhere.

The biggest advantage of this machine is that, seeds can be sown directly after harvesting. For example, paddy has been harvested.

With the help of this machine, you have planted the field, can be sown by which you save time, cost and labor only.

Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (TSS)

T

he Totagars’ Cooperative Sale Society (TSS) Ltd at Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district has launched a new organic fertilizer product in the market. Ravish Hegde, General Manager of TSS Ltd, informed that ‘TSS Annapurna’, the second organic fertilizer product from the cooperative, is an oil cakebased fertilizer and is being marketed by the cooperative under its own brand.

‘TSS Annapurna’ helps in the growth of Trichoderma, Hegde said, adding that it is suitable for arecanut, pepper and banana plantations.

The 96-year-old cooperative has around 30,000 members. The product is being marketed in 30kg bags.

To a query on the targets for the new product, he said TSS is planning to market around 25,000 bags of ‘TSS Annapurna’ this year, as the farmers need to get adjusted to this new product. He said the cooperative is targeting to market around 75,000 bags from the next financial year.

Hegde said TSS started marketing organic fertilizers under its own brand in 2015-16 with the launch of ‘TSS Green Gold’. Sugarcane pressmud is the base for ‘TSS Green Gold’. Pressmud is a by-product of sugar industry, and it is obtained after processing the sugarcane in the factories, he said.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 17

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

New Approach to Fertilizer Sector

18 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD Satish Chander Director General The Fertiliser Association of India

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 19

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

I

ndian farmers have served the country well during the last forty-five years. They not only ensured the food security of this vast country but also generated large surplus for exports of food grains and other commodities earning valuable foreign exchange. Food grains production increased from less than 100 million tonnes in 1974-75 to 285 million tonnes in 2018-19.

But these quantitative achievements have now been over shadowed by a number of adverse developments. Our crop yields per hectare of major crops are much lower than China and other neighbouring countries. For example, average yields of paddy in India is 3695 kg/ha compared with 6937 kg/ha in China and 4618 kg/ ha in Bangladesh. Poor use efficiency of plant nutrients particularly that of nitrogen in India is one of the reasons of low crop productivity.

This has adversely affected economic viability of agriculture and farmers’ income. The second important development is deteriorating soil health and over-exploitation of natural resources like water. Third, imprudent use of inputs has not only affected the crop yields but has raised environmental and sustainability issues. Fragmentation of land holdings has also prevented penetration of modern technology in farm practices.

Fertilizer remains the major input in realizing potential of high yielding variety seeds. Simple laws of mass and energy conservation dictate that one cannot realize high yields without input of sufficient plant nutrients to the soil. Sources other than chemical fertilizers can at best supplement the nutrient requirement of modern agriculture. However, it is equally true that there is a need for very judicious use of chemical fertilizers.

In fact, organic carbon content of soil is extremely important for physical, chemical and biological health of the soil. Application of organic fertilizers helps in better water use efficiency and in improving use efficiency of chemical fertilizers. Therefore, maximum benefit can be derived only when entire basket of plant nutrients from all sources - inorganic, organic and biological is utilized.

Policies related to fertilizer sector were formulated in 1970s with two objectives: first to encourage use of chemical fertilizers for realizing high crop yields with HYV seeds and the second

20 | DECEMBER 2019

to promote domestic fertilizer production to maintain supply of this vital input. Both these objectives were very well met which is reflected in spectacular growth both in consumption and production of fertilizers in the decades of 1980s and 1990s. Fertilizer consumption increased from 2.6 million tonnes nutrients in 1974-75 to 27.2 million tonnes nutrients in 2018-19.

Simultaneously production increased from 1.52 million tonnes to 17.9 million tonnes nutrients during the same period. Such a growth in consumption and production was achieved because the policy ensured affordable prices of fertilizers for the farmers and reasonable return on investment for fertilizer producers.

Subsequent distortions and lack of reforms in policies for the sector are hurting both agriculture and industry. These policies are partly responsible for imprudent use of inputs and creating sustainability issues. The present heavy subsidy on urea is acting as barrier for introduction of more efficient products which are being used world over. These products give much higher nitrogen use efficiency than urea.

The present policies have also badly affected the viability of domestic production after 2000. Last but not the least, huge fertilizer subsidy which is basically public money can be utilized better to address the issues of soil health, crop yields and farmers’ income. Therefore, in the interest of all stakeholders viz. farmers, industry and public, there is a need for fresh look on fertilizer policies and reboot the same at the earliest.

Any new policy for the sector has to be successful on three parameters. First or foremost, it should encourage balanced use of plant nutrients in integration with organic sources. The policy has also to take into account that India has committed at United Nations for Sustainable Management of Nitrogen. Resolution on Sustainable Management adopted by UN Environment Assembly recognizes the importance of nutrients including nitrogen ‘in global crop production and food security’.

But the resolution also states ‘nitrogen use across global economy is extremely inefficient leading to water, air and soil pollution’. Efficient use of nitrogen in agriculture will have to be part of strategy for sustainable nitrogen management.

One of the important considerations to promote efficient use of nitrogen is the pricing of nitrogen through different products. www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

It should be same through different products and it should also be in correspondence with prices of the other two primary nutrients viz. phosphorus and potash. Therefore, new policy has to ensure that there is no distortion in prices of different nutrients as is the case today. It should also encourage introduction of new and more efficient fertilizer products to improve nutrient use efficiency.

Second, the policies should ensure viability of domestic production. India is the second largest consumer of fertilizers in the world. India is heavily dependent on imports of raw materials and finished products. The present level of self-sufficiency built over the years is absolutely essential to secure our suppliers and avoid exploitation in the international markets. The complete distortion of original policy has nullified one of the objectives of policy i.e. reasonable return on investment in urea production facilities.

Many plants are logging negative return while others are operating on wafer thin margins.

Present policies for the sector have put the domestic production of both urea and NP/NPK fertilizers at disadvantage vis-Ă -vis imports. Discrimination is there in terms of taxation regime, reimbursement of reasonable cost and timely settling of the bills of fertilizer subsidy. These issues need to be addressed in new policy to ensure continued viability of the sector. Third and equally important consideration in formulation of policies is the fiscal sustainability.

For last several years, government is finding it difficult to make adequate provision for fertilizer subsidy in Union Budget. Therefore, the level of subsidy should not only be calibrated to derive maximum benefit for soil and crop yields but should also be fiscally sustainable.

Keeping in view the above discussion, theme of the FAI Annual Seminar 2019 has been kept ‘New Approach to Fertilizer Sector’. The Seminar will be held during 2-4 December, 2019 in Hotel Andaz Delhi, Aerocity, New Delhi.

Eminent economists, scientists, technologists and policy makers will make presentations and participate in discussion. Recommendations emerging out of this important event should help the policy makers in overhauling the policy environment of this vital sector which is critical to viability of Indian agriculture and well-being of rural population.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 21

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Industry

Reforming Indian Fertiliser (Urea) Sector Sugandha Arora Sardana & Vinay Trivedi CSE, New Delhi

22 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Industry

“

Urea is a highly subsidised commodity since government has for long controlled the market price of urea in order to make it affordable to farmers. However, urea’s low price has led to its excessive use in agriculture.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 23

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

L

ivelihood security of millions of Indians depends on the growth and prosperity of agricultural sector which itself is highly dependent on chemical fertilizers. Owing to this, fertilizers demand and consumption in India has increased tremendously in the last 70 years. Chemical fertilisers played a key role in increasing India’s food production from 52 million tonnes (MT) in 1951 to over 277 MT in 2017-18. India is now the second largest consumer of chemical fertilizers in the world, next only to China. It is also the second and third largest global producer of nitrogenous and phosphatic fertilizers respectively.

Between 1952-52 to 2017-18, the annual consumption of fertilisers, in nutrient terms—nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K)—rose from 0.07 million MT to 58 million MT and per hectare (ha) consumption increased from under 1 kg to about 135 kg.

Urea constitutes a major share of total fertilizer production

The main chemical fertilizers produced in India are urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), single super phosphate (SSP) and some variants of complex fertilizers. Nitrogen (in the form of urea) dominates the fertilizer market in terms of consumption. Urea is a highly subsidised commodity since government has for long controlled the market price of urea in order to make it affordable to farmers. However, urea’s low price has led to its excessive use in agriculture.

Globally, urea constitutes 50 per cent of all nitrogenous fertilizer consumption. The figure is 23 per cent in US and Europe, 54 per cent in Brazil and 46 per cent in China, but it is highest in India, about 80 per cent. Of the over 41 MT fertilisers produced in 2016-17, urea alone constituted around 60 per cent. India’s urea consumption has grown from 6 MT in 1980 to 30 MT in 2017. Most of India’s urea demand is catered to by indigenous urea manufacturers and rest (currently 20 per cent) is imported.

problems, such as stagnating or even declining productivity, soil sickness, widespread deficiency of secondary and micronutrients, and soil alkalinity and salinity. Nitrogen pollution of surface and groundwater has reached alarming levels in many states of India.

Nitrogen use efficiency in India is very low and significant quantities of nutrients are lost without being taken up by crops. Only 33 per cent of the nitrogen that is applied through fertilizers is taken up by the crops in the form of nitrates and the rest of the nitrogen is lost to the environment, representing a significant financial loss as well as contributing to surface and groundwater pollution along with a cascade of environmental and health impacts.

In parts of Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, nitrate (NO3) concentrations in dug well and shallow bore-well water has exceeded the limits prescribed by the World Health Organization (WHO) by several times.

Fertilizers are the major emitters of nitrous oxide gas (N2O) in India. In 2014, the year for which the latest data is available, 26 per cent emissions from the agriculture sector (about 108,477 CO2e) consisted of nitrous oxide. Nitrous oxide (N2O) emitted from the agricultural fields is a potent Greenhouse Gas (GHG) & Ozone Depleting Substance (ODS).

It’s GHG potential 300 times that of carbon dioxide & its ODP potential is 0.017 (similar to many HCFC refrigerants). N2O is now the largest ozone-depleting substance emitted through human activities. It is also a fast rising contributor to global climate change. Urea produces the highest lifecycle GHG emissions per tonne of nitrogen. Nitrous oxide emissions increase exponentially with urea overuse.

Overall, the environmental and health costs of nitrogen pollution have to be taken seriously and addressed quickly to ensure food security and environmental sustainability.

The impact of urea overuse

Highly controlled sector:

The use of urea often comes at the cost of other fertilisers and nutrients that are essential for the growth of plants. While the desirable ratio of N-P-K application is 4:2:1, the ratio in Punjab stands at 31.4:8:1 and the ratios are also skewed in favour of nitrogen in most other regions. This imbalance in plant nutrition has caused many

Fertilizer subsidy is the second largest subsidy after food in India and nearly 60 per cent of this subsidy is allocated to urea. While the average production cost of urea in India is about Rs 16,000/MT, its sales price is only about Rs. 5,360/ MT, balance is paid as subsidy by the Government. Due to the widening gap between

24 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Graph: Urea production, import and consumption in India India’s urea consumption grew from 6 million MT to 30 million MT from 1980 to 2017

Source: Compiled from various sources based on production and import: Annual report DoF; Fertiliser statistics, FAI; etc. cost of production and retail prices and the manifold increase in consumption, the fertiliser subsidy has increased drastically. In the 1970s, urea subsidy used to be 10–20 per cent of the cost of production, the subsidy now stands at 75 per cent of the cost of production. As a result overall fertilizer subsidy has increased geometrically.

Since the 1980s, fertilizer subsidy increased almost 144 times at current prices (from Rs 505 crore in 1980–81 to Rs 70,000 crore in 2017–18).

Under this subsidy system, fertilizer production, their distribution and movement is a heavily controlled. Over the last 60 years, the control of the government over urea has only tightened.

Not even a kilogram can be produced or sold without the government’s authorisation. Urea subsidy is one of the most micro-managed one.

Fertilizer manufacturing industry has to struggle with a Kafkaesque bureaucracy micro-managing marketing, logistics and subsidy payment, which has seriously vitiated the business environment in the sector.

The system of subsidies and controls in its present form has led to imbalanced and gross overuse of urea with adverse consequences both for the environment and for agricultural productivity. Further, it neither benefits the small farmer nor does it support the industry adequately.

Sometimes subsidies are essential but the threats they pose should be rationally weighted against the benefits they provide to all stakeholders. www.krishijagran.com

Only 34 per cent fertilizer subsidy reaches small and marginal farmers As urea subsidy is universal, there are many routes for the leakage of subsidized urea. Entrepreneurial large farmers and local shops buy large quantities, to be resold for a profit. The more serious leakages occurs from agriculture to industry and across international borders. Agricultural urea costs almost a third of the price of industrial urea, and the large price differential creates a thriving black market where subsidized fertilizers are resold to industry.

Due to its cheap price in India, there are reports of urea being illegally traded to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Nepal. Putting all leakages and inefficiencies together, it is estimated that only 34 per cent fertilizer subsidy manages to trickle down to small and marginal farmers.

The way ahead for the sector Nitrogen pollution due to excessive or improper fertilizer use is an established fact today. The use of the right amount of the right fertilizer at the right time is, therefore, critical for sustainable agriculture. Therefore, the sector needs major reforms for agricultural and environmental sustainability. The sector must go from being a volume driven industry which measures its performance by tonnes of urea produced, to a functionality driven industry which measures its performance by improved soil health and better DECEMBER 2019 | 25

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

yields.

It needs to shift its focus from urea alone to producing and promoting a balanced spectrum of NPK fertilizers as well as micro-nutrients such as sulphur, zinc, boron, iron, manganese and copper in which Indian soils are increasingly becoming deficient. For this, the Government must bring in reforms in its policies in order to promote the balanced use of fertilizers.

Nitrogen use efficiency may be improved by several means, the recent government initiative of mandating neem-coating urea is a positive step as it promotes the slower release of nitrogen leading to enhanced use efficiency. Efficiency may be improved through several means, including adjusting application rates based on precise estimation of crop needs (e.g., precision farming), using slow or controlled-release fertilizer or nitrification inhibitors, applying nitrogen when it is least susceptible to loss, often just prior to plant uptake (improved timing), placing nitrogen more precisely into the soil to make it more accessible to the roots of crops, and avoiding nitrogen application in excess of plant requirements.

The government needs to promote effective irrigation practices/technologies by providing capital subsidy on such technologies in order to further improve use efficiency. Awareness about such practices should be increased through mass campaigning. Government and fertilizer industry need to take a lead in spreading awareness amongst farmers about the most efficient methods of fertilizer application to reduce excessive use of nitrogenous fertilizers. Also, there is a need for significant investment in research and development (R&D) to promote efficient practices and sustainable technologies.

farmer’s aadhaar cards with land records and soil health cards. Though this process has already started, it needs to be expedited because it can bring revolutionary changes in identification of right beneficiaries, customize advice for individual farmers on fertilizer use, and can stop leakages and over-consumption.

The government needs to bring a measure of decontrol in the sector. Decontrolling will promote balanced fertilizer use, improved soil health and will reduce subsidy burden. It will bring competitiveness in urea manufacturing industry and will also bring innovations in production and products.

As organic fertilisers and compost come with a much lower environmental footprint than synthetic fertilisers, their use must be promoted through suitable policies. Bio-fertilisers are one product that can be profitable to industry and farmers as well as being less harmful to the environment. While the fertiliser industry already produces and sells bio-fertilisers, it needs to do more in this potential growth area. Poor segregation of inorganic and organic wastes at source hampers the growth of city composting. Organic fertilizers needs significant push at the ground level by effective government policies.

The government must also expedite linking of 26 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Industry

New Bill ensures Financial Support and Pension to Farmers of Kerala

T

he Kerala Assembly on 21st November 2019 has passed a new law to create farmers welfare board in the Southern state. The board, which is the first of its kind in any state aims to improve the quality of life of farmers & ensure better financial stability.The bill, proposed in the Assembly was referred to the select committee. After several rounds of discussions & sittings across Kerala, the bill was submitted & passed in the Assembly with amendments.

Financial Benefits & Pension The bill proposes to establish a farmers welfare board that will ensure attractive financial benefits as well as monthly pension to the farmers. A farmer, who has

www.krishijagran.com

a maximum of 15 acres of land or who is cultivating on lease land up to 15 acres will get the benefits of the welfare board. Each farmer, above 18 years of age can contribute a minimum of Rs. 100 /month to the scheme.

The State government will make a contribution of the same amount or a maximum of Rs 250 for every farmer as part of the scheme. If a grower continuously contributes for a minimum of 5 years, then he or she will be entitled to a lifetime pension after the age of 60.

The amount of pension will be determined based on the contribution & number of years.

DECEMBER 2019 | 27

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Grain by Grain: Green Rating of the Fertilizer Sector Centre for Science and Environment

28 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Industry

Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of India’s Fertilizer Industry

A

and qualitatively assessed. Due cognisance is also given to the perceptions of local community, media, state pollution control boards and the GRP team’s first-hand observations.

But the sector still has a long way to go to improve its performance on other environmental parameters.The rating encourages companies to voluntarily participate. But if they do not, they are still rated based on secondary information. The principle behind this evaluation is that though profit is a private concern of industry, pollution is a public one.

Urea manufacturing is an energy intensive process, accounting for 70-80 per cent of production cost. Hence, energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were given the highest weightage (30 per cent). Pollution—of air and water, and generation of solid and hazardous waste—is the second-most important segment and carries nearly 20 per cent weightage. Water use efficiency was given 15 per cent weightage.

Environment management systems, health, safety, and compliance are crucial components of a sustainable industrial operation and 17 per cent weightage was assigned to them. Local stakeholders play the role of a watchdog in a plant’s performance and their perspective is given a weightage of 10 per cent. Transparency has been given a weightage of 8 per cent considering public disclosure practices of environmental data by the plants and their disclosure during the GRP process.

fter rating six major industrial sectors in the past two decades, Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment’s innovative, Green Rating Project (GRP) assessed the fertiliser-manufacturing sector in 2018-19. A Comprehensive Environmental Assessment of India’s Fertilizer industry reveals that, some of the plants are among the best in the world on energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.

The main chemical fertilizers produced in India are urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), single super phosphate (SSP) and some variants of complex fertilizers—with a combination of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) nutrients. Urea manufacturing is the mainstay of the fertiliser industry. Of the over 41 MT fertilisers produced in 2016-17, urea constituted around 60 per cent. India’s urea consumption has grown from 6 MT in 1980 to 30 MT in 2017.

Indigenous urea production has played an important role in fulfilling the urea demand, with the average annual production at around 24 MT in 2017—the rest is imported. Since urea production is mostly indigenous and large-scale, it was considered for GRP. ALL OF INDIA’S 23 operational urea plants were surveyed for the project. GRP rated them on six categories comprising 54 indicators covering their entire life cycle—from environmental impact of raw material sourcing to the final product.Under GRP, companies are sent a questionnaire and the responses are quantitatively www.krishijagran.com

Since 1997, the Centre for Science and Environment has been rating industrial sectors through its “Green Leaves Award”. “5 Leaves” are for best performers. The urea sector as a whole received a score of 42 per cent and “3 Leaves”—an average performance.It was, however, found to be relatively non-transparent.

Of the 23 plants rated, only one managed to bag “4 Leaves” Award with a score of 61 per cent. About two-thirds of the plants received “3 Leaves”. Four plants received just “1 Leaf ”.

The sector has done reasonably well in implementing policy and environment management systems. The fertiliser sector is a significant contributor to India’s GHG emissions. Natural gas is the major raw material for ammonia manufacturing and hence for urea.The urea DECEMBER 2019 | 29

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

industry, with 30 per cent, is the biggest consumer of natural gas in India. Natural gas is commonly used as feedstock and fuel, a cleaner fuel compared to naphtha—the sector though still has three naphtha-based plants. Moreover, captive power generation at all the top performing plants is gas-based—a lesson for those urea plants that run on coal-based power.

The sector as a whole received a score of 43 per cent in energy use and GHG emissions. On an average, the plants surveyed consume 6.2 Gigacalorie (GCal)/tonne of urea produced, which is nearly 30 per cent higher that the global best practice of 4.8 GCal/tonne. But some plants, like Yara, Babrala, are among the world’s best.

Emissions from production are only a small part of the GHG released from fertilisers. The bulk of CO2 emissions come from the use of fertilisers in the field, which also gives rise to emissions of the potent GHG nitrous oxide (N2O).

GRP, however, did not rate the plants on emissions during the use as reliable information was not available.

plants, all in Uttar Pradesh, rely entirely on groundwater. Together, these plants account for 94 per cent of the groundwater consumption by the urea manufacturing sector.

INDIA’S FERTILISER INDUSTRY is classified under the “red category” of polluting sectors by CPCB. Wastewater generated at urea plants contains ammoniacal and Kjeldahl nitrogen, and cyanides in varying concentrations, which can lead to groundwater and surface water pollution, if not treated properly.

At a urea plant, the major sources of water pollution are the process condensate generated from the urea section (containing urea, ammonia and CO2) and oil-bearing effluent from pumps and compressors. A substantial quantity of wastewater is also generated from plant utilities as cooling tower blow-down, demineralised regeneration and water treatment plant (WTP) back-washing.

Typical end-of-pipe effluent treatment plants are generally not seen in urea plants as they possess in-house treatment facilities. About 57 per cent

FERTILISER PRODUCTION Is a moderately water intensive process. The average annual water consumption of the urea-manufacturing sector of India is about 191 million cubic metres. The sector obtained an average score of 40 per cent in water use efficiency.Plants were rated on indicators like water sourcing, specific water consumption (SWC), trends in SWC, groundwater stress, water accounting and reporting, cooling tower technology and rainwater harvesting.

Indo Gulf Fertilisers (IGF) in Uttar Pradesh topped the list with a score of 66 per cent and NFL Nangal was at the bottom with a score of 15 per cent.

The average specific water use was in the range of 4.55 cubic metres/tonne to 12.73 cubic metres/tonne of urea produced (see ‘Water consumption’). Based on sector-wise comparison, public sector plants have the highest average SWC of 8.13 cubic metres/tonne urea produced in which plants with coal-based captive power plants (CPPs) are the most inefficient.Some plants do not even meet the 2003 Corporate Responsibility for Environment Protection Guidelines, issued by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

Use of groundwater is surprisingly high with about 26 per cent plants relying on it. Four 30 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

samples collected near 14 plants were found non-compliant with fertiliser effluent discharge norms set by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, particularly with respect to cyanide concentrations in many of the samples and total Kjeldahl nitrogen levels in a few samples.

About 83 per cent groundwater samples collected near 18 plant sites had an ammoniacal nitrogen content of 0.51–93.5 parts per million (ppm), the upper limit of which is 187 times the permissible limit of 0.5 ppm for drinking water set by the Bureau of Indian Standards. Since discharges from urea plants are used in horticulture and green belt development as well as for deashing purposes, they are likely to percolate into the groundwater table. Air pollution is more of an issue for only naphtha-based plants or those with fuel oil or coal-based captive power plants.

NOx emission norms for reformers were only introduced in December 2017.

As per CPCB guidelines, it is mandatory to install continuous emission monitors (CEMS) in urea prilling towers (where urea prills or pellets

www.krishijagran.com

are formed) but due to lack of suitable technology most urea plants with natural draft prilling towers have not been able to install CEMS. The industry emits air pollutants such as particulate matter and oxides of nitrogen, sulphur and carbon dioxide.

In general, plants are disposing their solid and hazardous wastes in the prescribed manner and are transparent about the recyclers to whom they sell their waste. Improper maintenance of ash ponds has emerged as an issue with coalbased CPPs. At some plants, fly ash ponds are not properly lined and there are no dust suppression measures in place.

THE SECTOR PERFORMEDÂ poorly in stakeholder perspective with the average score being just 32 per cent. This is largely due to poor Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) performance of most plants. Ammonia smell is the most prevalent issue but very few plants are running community awareness and training programmes on emergency situations arising due to gaseous leakage.

DECEMBER 2019 | 31

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Several complaints from local communities on deterioration of groundwater and surface water near plants have been received over the years due to effluent discharge. Since groundwater and effluent samples collected by the GRP team were found to be non-compliant, these complaints seem to be justified.

IFFCO, the largest cooperative and NFL, the largest public sector entity, operating three and four plants respectively (constituting around 18 per cent and 16 per cent of the total capacity of the sector respectively), proved to be big disappointments. Repeated attempts to convince them to join the responsible participating companies failed to elicit a response. These plants were rated based on the secondary information collected and local stakeholder surveys carried out.

In terms of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, NFL plants located in Bathinda, Nangal and Panipat were amongst the poor performers.

In the overall water use efficiency rating, NFL, Bathinda and Panipat plants obtained only “1 Leaf ”, while NFL Nangal did not even manage one.

These plants are performing even worse than high energy consuming naphtha-based plants.

Also, these plants (including NFL Vijaipur I) were amongst the 14 plants that failed to meet the New Urea Policy 2018 targets set by the government and were granted additional two years to meet their targets by 2020. In terms of water efficiency also, all coal-based NFL plants are lagging, with NFL Panipat plant consuming as high as 12.7 cubic metres/tonne of urea produced.

Madras Fertilisers Ltd (MFL), a Public Sector Undertaking in Chennai performed poorly in almost all the categories and managed to get only 22 per cent. Its average specific energy consumption during the past three years was at 7.64 GCal per tonne urea produced—the lowest in the sector. CPCB had issued directions to MFL for failing to install CEMS and continuous effluent quality monitors (CEQMS) and, thereafter, closure notice was issued to the plant in 2017.

Media has reported MFL’s pollution issues regularly. As per community complaints, the plant continues to pollute the surroundings.

THE THREE TOP rated urea fertiliser plants are IGF, Jagdishpur, Uttar Pradesh at the top position; KRIBHCO Ltd, Hazira and Mangalore 32 | DECEMBER 2019

Chemicals and Fertilisers, Karnataka at joint second; and Yara Fertilisers, Uttar Pradesh, at the third position.

IGF is a natural gas-based plant of the Aditya Birla Group. It has an annual production capacity of 1.1 MT. The plant’s average energy consumption in the last three years has been 5.27 GCal per tonne urea produced, around 10 per cent higher than the global best practice.

Average CO2 emission intensity in the same period has been 0.44 tonne CO2 per tonne urea produced—among the best in India. The average SWC as reported by the plant is 5.09 cubic metres/tonne urea. Water accounting and metering system is in good shape and water meters are present at all important use locations. The plant was extremely transparent throughout the rating process.

KRIBHCO, Hazira is a natural gas-based plant.

It has an annual urea production capacity of 2.2 MT. The plant’s average energy consumption during the last three years has been 5.66 GCal per tonne urea produced. Average CO2 emission intensity in the last three years has been 0.5 tonne CO2 per tonne urea produced—comparable to other energy-efficient plants.

In terms of water efficiency, the plant has the lowest reported SWC of 4.55 cubic metres/ tonne urea—the best in the sector. The plant has been running trials to supply its wastewater to nearby industries for reuse. The treated water from its STP is utilised for cooling tower makeup. The plant has installed low-NOx burners and CEMS at its CPP gas turbine. Effluent samples collected from the plant were well within the norms for ammoniacal and Kjeldahl nitrogen.

Local community had mixed opinions about the plant. Although the plant provides drinking water to a few nearby villages, it has not undertaken any CSR initiatives in the area. The plant scored well in transparency for sharing data voluntarily and for responding to queries.

Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Ltd in Panambur, north of Mangaluru city has an annual production capacity of 0.42 MT. The plant’s average energy consumption during the past three years has been 6.46 GCal per tonne urea produced. Its specific energy consumption is expected to fall once a natural gas-based supply system is established. In terms of energy consumption, the plant is performing better than the other two naphtha-based plants in India and www.krishijagran.com

Industry

AGRICULTURE WORLD

also better than a few natural gas-based plants.

Average CO2 emission intensity during the past three years has been 1.13 tonne CO2 per tonne urea produced, which is on the higher side due to naphtha and furnace oil consumption. Its average SWC during the last three years has been 5.34 cubic metres/tonne urea produced. The plant has a zero liquid discharge system at the effluent treatment plant which allows it to completely recycle the effluent within its premises.

Yara Fertilisers acquired Tata Chemical’s Babrala unit in January 2018. It is a natural gas-based plant and the total revamped capacity of the unit is 1.28 MT. The plant’s average energy consumption during 2015-17 was 5.17 GCal/tonne urea produced—the best among all plants.

Average CO2 emission intensity during the past three years has been 0.43 tonnes CO2 per tonne urea, which is among the best in India. www.krishijagran.com

The main source of raw water for Yara Fertilisers is groundwater obtained through borewells. Average SWC of the plant was 4.61 cubic metres/tonne urea produced during 2015–17.

Water scarcity is an issue in the region, so the plant should curtail the use of ground-water and switch to other sources. As per the plant’s compliance report, about 80 per cent treated waste-water is recycled in process and the rest is used in landscaping. The plant’s CSR activities were appreciated by nearby villages during the survey. However, the plant performed poorly in terms of transparency by not sharing any information.

(The article is based on a CSE report titled Grain by Grain: Green Rating of the Fertilizer Sector, released on June 5, 2019) (This article was first published in Down To Earth's print edition dated June 1-15, 2019) DECEMBER 2019 | 33

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Sustainability

Soil Testing Scenario in India and Its Significance in the Balanced Use of Fertilisers

Authors’ contributions This work was carried out in collaboration between all authors. Author HMM designed the study, performed the statistical analysis, wrote the protocol and wrote the first draft of the manuscript.

Authors HMM and RPS managed the analyses of the study. Author Roohi managed the literature searches. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

34 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Hari Mohan Meena1*, R. P. Sharma2 and Roohi1 1Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry, GKVK, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore (UAS) (B), Karnataka-65, India.

2Department of Soil Science, Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya (CSKHPKV), Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 35

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

ABSTRACT

programmes.

Soil testing is employed for quick characterisation of the inherent fertility status of soils and predicting the nutrient requirements of crops.

Soil testing is guiding the farmers regarding the balanced and judicious use of the fertilisers, which ultimately reduces the overall costs and finally mitigate the consequences of the global warming.

1.2 History of Soil Testing in India The soil testing programme started in India during the year 195556 with the setting-up of 16 soil testing laboratories under the Indo-US Operational Agreement for "Determination of Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Use". In the early 50's when soil testing work started scientists (mainly at IARI) were concerned with the development/adoption/calibration of suitable soil test methods, and by far the most attention was paid to soil tests for phosphorus. Early work on soil testing owes a great deal too late Dr N.P. Datta and his associates at IARI [1].

Proper soil sampling techniques must be demonstrated to the farmers for having more meaningful results by adopting which more desirable results will be achieved. Soil sampling will be the ultimate gadget which surely improves the livelihoods of the farmers by reducing the dose of fertilisers as we have to feed the crop but not the soil.

Keywords: Soil testing; fertility status of soil; soil health and balance nutrition.

1. INTRODUCTION Soil testing refers to the chemical analysis of soils and is well recognised as a scientific means for quick characterisation of the inherent fertility status of soils. It also includes testing of soils for other properties like texture, structure, pH (depending on Organic carbon (%), available phosphorus and potash), Cation Exchange Capacity, water holding capacity, electrical conductivity etc. and parameters for amelioration of chemically deteriorated soils for recommending soil amendments, such as gypsum for alkali soils and lime for acid soils. The basic purpose of the soil-testing programme is to give farmers a service leading to better soil, soil testing helps in soil management in various ways. Like for example pattern of soil justifies the type of cropping or more precisely soil specific cropping. It helps in soil reclamation and helps to know the gypsum requirement etc. and more economical use of fertilizers and better soil management practices for increasing agricultural production.

1.1 Objectives of Soil Testing a. To provide an index of inherent nutrient availability in soil. b. To predict the probability of obtaining a profitable response to lime and fertiliser. c. To provide a basis for recommendations on the amount of fertiliser, that is applied in fields, mostly for orchards and salt-affected soil. d. Such summaries are helpful in developing both farm level and nutrient management 36 | DECEMBER 2019

Goswami and co-worker's attempted soil testcrop response correlation work from a large volume of field data from the All India Coordinated Agronomic Research Project (1968) under cultivator's fields (simple fertilizer trials) for rice and wheat.

In 1965, five of the existing laboratories were strengthened, and nine new laboratories were established under the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) in selected districts. To meet the increasing requirement of soil testing facilities, 25 new soiltesting laboratories were added in 1970 and 34 mobile soil testing vans were established under the joint auspices of the Technical Cooperation Mission (TCM) of USA, IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute) and Govt. of India.

The number of soil testing laboratories (STLs) has increased progressively from 1971 to 2000 exhibiting an annual growth rate of 6.94 % over a period of thirty years. During 11th Five Year Plan, a National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility (NPMSHF) scheme provides for setting up of 124 and 118 new static and mobile soil testing laboratories, respectively and strengthening of the existing 170 labs with micronutrient testing facilities.

1.3 Soil Testing Laboratories in India The number of soil testing laboratories increased to 1,049 of which 896 are static, and 153 are mobile with a total analysing capacity of 107 lakh sample annually. These laboratories were analyzing pH, EC, major plant nutrients, i.e. N, P and K and quality of irrigation water and some of the laboratories have started analyzing secondary and micro-nutrients.

1.4 Functions of Static soil Testing Laboratory i. Analysis of soil samples which are collected by farmers or from the farmers by the Assistant Agricultural Officers. www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

ii. Analysing irrigation water samples for EC, pH, cations and anions; Assessing their quality based on different parameters; and suggesting suitable ameliorative measures for different soil condition and crops. iii. Based on the soil test value for the soil samples collected during the particular year they are rated as low, medium and high; and village fertility indices will be prepared. iv. Conducting trials related to soil fertility to solve the site-specific problems.

1.5 Functions of Mobile Soil Testing Laboratory i. The staffs of the mobile soil testing laboratory visit the villages to collect and analyse the soil and irrigation water samples in the village itself and give recommendations immediately. ii. Show the audio-visual programmes through projectors in the villages to educate the importance of soil testing, plant protection measures and other practices related to crop production.

1.6 Constraints in Functioning of STLs i. Inadequate technical staff. ii. Weak and inadequate linkages of STLs with SAUs and other research organizations. iii. Poor level of training support from research organizations to STL personnel.

www.krishijagran.com

iv. Lack of new equipments and lack of laboratory automation. v. Attainment of poor targets on farmer’s fields particularly on small and marginal farmers is also one of the constraints that need consideration which may be due to improper selection of testing methods.

1.7 Soil Nutrient as an Index of Soil Fertility Soil testing laboratories use organic carbon as an index of available N, Olsen’s and Bray’s method for available P and neutral normal ammonium acetate for K. Available nutrient status in the soils is generallyclassified as low, medium and high which are generally followed at the National level in Table 1 [2].

1.8 Nutrient Status – N P K Singh [3] computed nutrient index values and prepared a soil fertility map for nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium using 3.65 million soil analysis data collected from 533 soil testing labs representing 450 districts in the country (Fig. 1).

1.9 Secondary and Micro-nutrients Statusin Indian Soils Singh and Behera [4] Three lakh soil samples were analysed from different sites and reported

DECEMBER 2019 | 37

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

that 49 % soil samples were deficient in Zn, 40 % in S, 12 % in Fe, 3 % in Cu, 5 % in Mn, 33 % in B and 13 % in Mo (Fig. 2).

Suitable testing methods are being standardized under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Micronutrients.

2. APPLICATIONS OF SOIL TESTING 1. Generalized Fertilizer recommendation (GRD) 2. Integrated nutrient management 3. Site-specific nutrient management 4. Soil test based fertilizer recommendation 5. Fertilizer recommendation for a targeted yield of the crop 6. Preparation of soil maps 7. Soil health cards 2.1 Generalized or State Level Blanket Fertilizer Recommendation The state-level fertilizer recommendations for a particular crop

38 | DECEMBER 2019

are given from time to time in the package of practices for Kharif and is most commonly advocated and followed method and ideally suited to soils of medium fertility.

Limitations: 1.Due to variation in soil fertility, it does not ensure economy and efficiency of applied fertilizer.

2. Wastage in high fertility and sub-optimal use in low fertility soils.

2.2 Soil Test Based Fertilizer Recommendations Generalized recommendation of fertilizers is suitable for soils of medium fertility. If soil test value comes under high rating then recommended a dose of fertilizer is reduced by 25-50 per cent and if the rating is low then recommended a dose of chemical fertilizer is increased by 2550 per cent.

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Limitations: • •

Same dose for extremely low and moderately low soils.

Same dose for extremely high and moderately high soils.

• 2.3 Soil Test Based Fertilizer Recommendation for a Targeted Yield of the Crop The method of fertilizer recommendations thus developed, is called “Prescription Based Fertilizer Recommendations”, and is specific to a given type of soil, crop and climate situation. The requirement of nutrients is different for different crops and the efficiency of soil available nutrients as well as those added through fertilizers is also not same for a different type of soils under a particular set of climate conditions.

Keeping this in view, the following tree parameters are worked out for the specific crop and area for development of prescription based fertilizer recommendations: 1. Nutrient requirement (N, P and K ) in kg/ quintal grains (NR) 2. The percentage contribution from soil available nutrient total uptake (CS).

3. The percentage contribution from applied nutrient (fertilizer) to total uptake (CF).

Development of fertilizer adjustment equation:

ed to fertilizer SN = Soil test value in kg/ha for available N SP = Soil test value in kg/ha for available P (not P2O5) SK = Soil test value in kg/ha for available K (not K2O) 2.4 Integrated Nutrient Management The combined use of chemical fertilizers and organics becomes essential to meet the nutrient requirement and reduce the negative balance.

Also sustaining of the soil productivity and soil health becomes easier with the inclusion of organic sources along with inorganic fertilizers.

Technologies have been generated at different locations across the country for the integrated supply of plant nutrients involving fertilizers, organic manures and bio-fertilizers. In this technique, the fertilizer nutrient doses are adjusted not only to that contributed from soil but also from various organic sources like FYM, green manure, compost, crop residues and biofertilizers like Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria.

2.5 Site-specific Nutrient Management Site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) should be followed to apply the required amount of fertilizers for optimizing the supply and demand of nutrients according to their variation in time and space for achieving the high yield targets.

Fertilizer nutrient dose =

NR X 100 The SSNM approach aims at increasing farm%CF X STV er’s profit by achieving the goal of maximum %CF economic yield (MEY) of crops on a sustainable %F basis, maintaining soil fertility and protecting After calculating these three basic parameters the environment. from the yield and uptake data from the well conducted test crop response experiment, these Site-specific nutrient management provides an basic parameters, in turn, are transferred into approach for “feeding” the crops with the nutrisimple, workable fertilizer adjustment equations ents as and when they are needed. of the type: 2.6 The Main Features of SSNM are FN = XT – Y SN FP2O5 = XT – SP • Application of nitrogen, phosphorus and FK2O = XT – SK potassium fertilizers is adjusted to the locaWhere, tion and season-specific needs of the crop.

X and Y = constants • Site-specific application of secondary and T = Yield target in quintal per hectare micronutrients based on soil tests are enFN = Nitrogen dose in kg/ha which is to be addsured. ed to fertilizer • This approach advocates wise and optimal FP2O5 = P2O5 dose in kg/ha which is to be use of existing indigenous nutrient resourcadded to fertilizer es such as crop residues, manures, etc.

FK2O = K2O dose in kg/ha which is to be addwww.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 39

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Srinivasan and Angayarkanni [5] observed that the fertilizer requirement decreased with the conjoint application of fertilizers + FYM + Azospirillum for a specific yield target at the same soil test value. Hence there will be a balanced supply of nutrients coupled with organics and bio-fertilizers avoiding either under or over usage of fertilizers.

Santhi et al. [6] observed that fertilizer requirement decreased with the conjoint application of fertilizers + FYM for a specific a specific yield target at the same soil test value due to a balanced supply of nutrients coupled with FYM avoiding over the use of fertilizers.

Soman et al. [7] observed that the superiority of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) over farmer’s fertilizer practice (FFP) in increasing the root yield of cassava and uptake of N and P in SSNM plot significant increase compared to farmer’s fertilizer practice plot.

Tiwari et al. [8] reported that nutrient application by site-specific nutrient management principles resulted in significantly higher grain yields over farmers’ practices (FP) and recommended a dose of fertilizer (RDF).

Katharine et al. [9] observed that seed cotton yield numerically higher in the STCR-IPNS treatments compared to STCR-NPK alone treatments and also the seed cotton yield significantly higher under STCR-NPK alone and STCR-IPNS treatments compared to general recommendation of fertilizers and farmer’spractice.

Nagegowda et al. [10] observed the grain and straw yield of rice was significantly higher in SSNM-major + secondary + micronutrient treatments compared to Farmers’ Fertilizer Practice (FFP).

Deshmukh et al. [11] reported that the application of balanced fertilizer dose of N, P and K as per STCR treatment with or without farm yard manure @ 2.5 t ha-1 helped to maintain the organic carbon status and available N, P and K in soil thereby sustaining the soil health.

2.7 Preparation of Soil Fertility Maps An attempt was made with a joint venture of IISS, Bhopal and NBSSLUP, Nagpur to create spatial fertilizer recommendation maps using available validated fertilizer adjustment equa40 | DECEMBER 2019

tions (STCR’s generated) and Geographic Information System (GIS). The maps can also be updated from time to time based on the soil test result data base. It can be further narrowed down to block/village level depend on the availability of information.

These fertility maps can also be used to study the changing trends in the fertility status of nutrients and can be correlated with fertilization practices of farmers of a particular region.

Scientists in this regard approach to many other technically advanced methods that can explore the better way of soil renovation. Several technologies are involved in the formation of better soil or crop-specific soil that inherits all the useful nutrients to it.

Numerous agricultural universities have taken a step ahead to built better agro-economic ventures for the enrichment of agriculture not only in Indian aspects but also in the platform of the world.

2.8 Soil Health Cards The soil analysis basically aims at assessing the fertility status of the soil. This information along with the additional information on the farmer’s land may be presented to the farmers in the form of soil health cards. The additional information may relate to the relevant revenue record of farmer’s field. This card may also be useful to the farmers in getting loans for agriculture purposes where the agricultural value of the land may be one of the factors.

5th December is celebrated as World Soil day” throughout the world, which is said to be importance for soil as a critical component of the natural system and as a vital contributor to the human commonwealth through its contribution to food, water and energy security and as a mitigator of biodiversity loss and climate change.

2.9 Objectives of Soil Health Cards 1. Provide direct advice to farmers.

2. The soil health card so issued to the farmers may be periodically updated so as the farmers are aware of the changing fertility status of their land.

3. Soil analysis for all villages in the state.

4. Provide guidance to farmers regarding fertilizer usage and alternative crop patterns.

5. Provide Soil Health Cards to every farmer

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

3. CONCLUSION Soil testing is employed for quick characterization of the fertility status of soils and is to give farmers a service leading to better and more economic use of fertilizers and better soil management practices for increasing agricultural production. Balance nutrition through soil testing helps in maintained soil fertility and soil health.

Targeted yield fertilizer recommendations provide balanced nutrition to crops, thus, are able to

sustain the crop productivity. GIS-based soil fertility maps are used as a decision support tool for nutrient management will not only be helpful for adopting a rational approach compared to farmer practices or blanket use of state recommended fertilization but will also reduce the necessity for elaborate plot-by-plot soil testing activities.

COMPETING INTERESTS Authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

REFERENCES 1. Datta NP, Kamath MB. Evaluation of soil test for available phosphorus. Indian J.Agric. Sci. 1959;29:11-18.

2. Muhr GR, Datta NP, Shankar, Subramoney H, Liley VK, Donahue RL. Soil testing in India. U.S. Agency for International Development, New Delhi, India. 1965;120.

3. Singh M. Soil management about sustainable food production. J. Indian Soc. Soil Sci. 2010;58:65-72.

4. Singh, MV and Behera SK. ERCP on micro and secondary nutrients and pollutant elements in soil and plants- A Profile, Research Bulletin. 2011;10:1-57. (IISS, Bhopal).

5. Srinivasan S, Angayarkanni A. Fertilizer recommendation based on soil test-crop response for high targeted yield. Oryza.

2010;47(4):287-290.

6. Santhi R, Saranya S, Appavu K, Natesan R, Bhaskaran A. Soil test crop response based integrated plant nutrition system for Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera L. Dunal) on Inceptisols. The Orissa Journal of Horticulture. 2010;33:11-15.

7. Soman S, Byju G, Bharathan R. GISbased decision support system for precision farming of cassava in India. Acta Biol. Indica.

2013;2(2):394-399.

8. Tiwari KN, Biradar DP, Aladakatti YR and Rao TN. Site-specific nutrient management for maximization of crop yields in Northern Karnataka. Better Crops. 2006;90(3):245- 250.

9. Katharine SP, Santhi R, Maragatham S, Natesan R, Ravikumar V, Pradip D. Soil test based fertilizer prescriptions through inductive cum targeted yield model for transgenic cotton on Inceptisol. Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science. 2013;6: 36-44.

10. Nagegowda NS, Biradar DP, Manjunath B. Effect of site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) on growth and yield of rice in Tungabhadra project area. Int. J. Sci. and Nat. 2011;2(1):144-146.

11. Deshmukh KK, Bisen NK, Chourasia SK. Influence of soil test based fertilization on soil fertility and productivity of Rice.

Madras Agric. J. 2012;99(10-12):704-706. Š 2018 Meena et al.; This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which Peer-review history: The peer review history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.sciencedomain.org/review-history/23940

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 41

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Soil Health Card Scheme Impacts and Recommendations Suresh Ediga Co- Founder, i4Farmers.org

42 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

DECEMBER 2019 | 43

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Profitability of Farmers depends on Sustainable Soil Health and Fertility. Excessive use of Fertilisers and Imbalanced nutrient usage isnt improving the conditions of the soil, thereby affecting the yield of the crops. Optimal doses of fertilizers and cropping pattern is the first step towards sustainable farming.

In India, the current consumption of NPK ratio is 6.7:2.4:1, which is highly skewed towards nitrogen as against ideal ratio of 4:2:1. India is spending nearly Rupees Seventy thousand crore on fertilizer subsidy every year. According to the estimates, subsidy amount is about Rs.5000/ha of net-cropped area and about Rs.5100/farmer resulting in excessive use of fertilizers, especially NPK at the cost of micronutrients and manure.

Hence, there is a need for awareness on balanced use of fertilizers.

The soil testing programme started in India during the year 1955-56 with the setting-up of 16 soil testing laboratories under the Indo-US Operational Agreement for "Determination of Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Use".Quite a few states including Tamilnadu, Haryana, Gujarat and Andra Pradesh have been successfully distributing such cards.Tamilnadu has been distributing soil cards for more than adecade from the year 2006. According to a press release, dated 18 March, 2012 over 48 crore soil health cards have been distributed. Soil testing refers to the chemical analysis of soils and is well recognised as a scientific means for quick characterisation of the inherent fertility status of soils. It also includes testing of soils for other properties like texture, structure, pH (depending on Organic carbon (%), available phosphorus and potash), Cation Exchange Capacity, water holding capacity,electrical conductivity etc. and parameters for amelioration of chemically deteriorated soils for recommending soil amendments, such as gypsum for alkali soils and lime for acid soils.

Timely reporting of soil test results to farmers is very crucial in this whole programme.

The Speed and reliability of operations and the availability of having Appropriate systems and processes should be in place to effectively implement the program to get desired results.

Government has been implementing ‘Soil Health Card’ (SHC) scheme since 2015 to assist State Governments in soil testing and providing soil health cards to all farm holdings in the country regularly in a cycle of 2 years. Soil health cards provide information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations 44 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and fertility.

The Samples are collected at a grid of 2.5 ha in irrigated area and 10 ha in un-irrigated area. 12 Soil Health parameters viz. primary nutrients (NPK); secondary nutrient (S); micronutrients (B, Zn, Mn, Fe, & Cu); and others (pH, EC & OC) are analyzed for comprehensiveness.

During the 1st Cycle (2015- 2017) of the scheme, 10.73 crore soil health cards and during the 2nd Cycle (2017-19), 10.69 crore soil health cards have been distributed by State Governments to farmers across the country. Unfortunately the soil health cards printed/distributed in the first cycle had very limited usage because the soil health cards were not easy to understand with the pH values, EC and OC, the recommendations were also not so easy to follow and needed further help and guidance, the test results used numbers rather than any color coding (red, green etc.) to make the results more obvious.

Subsequently the soil health cards were redesigned during the 2nd cycle making them visually understandable.

Fund Utilization The government has released over 600 crores from 2014 until now. While the initial years did see effective utilization (at least as per the numbers), the last two years, showed a dramatic decline in funds utilization leaving 124 crores as unspent money.

Going by the impressive numbers reported on the dashboard of soilhealth.dac.gov.in website and the fund allocation and the targets set for the individual states, this may appear to be a well thought out and an equally well-executed government program. But optics can be deceptive.

The Soil Health Card alone in isolation cannot necessarily change the ground reality i.e. the excessive dependency on the chemical based agriculture. There is an ecosystem built around this, a majority of which is funded by the government in the form of fertilizer subsidies to the tune of over 72,000 crores. And part of this ecosystem are the local traders, the local fertilizer and chemical suppliers, the local commission agents, all of who influence and sometimes force the decision for the farmer to rely on the chemical based farming.

As an example, consider the SCH recommendation when it comes to the overall usage of the fertilizer (shown below in the picture), it doesn’t www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 45

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

specify how much to spray in each cycle and how many such cycles are required. It is understandable that this information may be too much to be carried on a health card and possibly left to the technicians/field operators to explain the nuances to the farmer, but these are some very crucial details that cannot be afforded to be left out.

Under normal circumstances i.e. good rains, healthy crop, no pests, the farmer would have no issues abiding by the guidelines (not warning), but these days, the farmer has very seldom, the ideal conditions to operate. These are some very desperate times and desperate times seek desperate measures or at least from a farmer’s point of view, who resorts to spray more and more in an effort to either save the crop or to increase the yield. The ecosystem around the CBF is so well built and well connected, it becomes impossible for the farmer to think and act outside of this.

Rs 50,000 per hectare/ 3 years is given, out of which Rs. 31,000 (61%) is provided to the farmers directly through DBT, for inputs (bio-fertilizers, biopesticides, vermicompost, botanical extracts etc) production/ procurement, post harvest infrastructure etc.

Sustainability There is hardly any awareness of this assistance across the farming community. The claim of DBT is to be further substantiated. Moreover, if the govt was serious about promoting organic inputs, it would reduce the budget subsidies for fertilizer companies, which in the current budget has seen a historic allocation of over 72,000 crores.

While there is absolutely no doubt that the SHC is a great first step in the direction of understand-

Irony :Advisory and Recommendations on the Soil Health Card The soil health card comes with an advisory that says, “Excess use of Fertilizer is injurious to soil health and plant growth. Use fertilizer judiciously.” And a recommendation that says, “Organic Manures improve Soil Health”. It is quite ironic that both the advisory & recommendation are listed next to each other. What India needs is a revolution in the agricultural practices, not a gradual evolution.

A revolution, similar to the green revolution which aggressively pushed the usage of chemical based agriculture, should be adopted to decrease the usage of fertilizers and chemicals and increase organic/natural methods to increase soil health. Unfortunately, the government has hardly implemented any formidable policies in this direction. To a question in LokSabha, on the government’s efforts to promote production of organic inputs, the government responded, among other things, that an assistance of 46 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

ing the soil health, it is not a silver bullet that can alleviate the problems faced by the farmers when it comes to dealing with the soil fertility.

Many of the benefits highlighted in the screenshot taken from the SHC website, unfortunately, cannot be availed due to the lack of a bottom up approach in its implementation.

Comprehending Farmer Issues There are many things under the purview which we cannot comprehend for e.g. the farmers decision to grow a particular crop is often influenced by the MSP offered by the government, not based on the soil health or not whether the crop is native to the land.

Another example - The Agriculture Extension Officer (AEO) who are the liaison between the govt (district administration) and the farmer, are a great resource. Unfortunately, there is no accountability or transparency for the work the AEO’s do or don’t and often are not empowered or incentivised to do their jobs, rendering most of the govt policies inefficient.

The soil can be tested and the soil health cards can be printed, but can they really benefit the farmers - the answer is an unequivocal NO, at least as things stand as of today

References: SHC usage: http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/annex/171/ AS334.pdf Fund utilization: http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/annex/171/ AU453.pdf SHC snapshots: https://soilhealth.dac.gov.in/ Promoting organic inputs: http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/ annex/171/AU642.pdf Soil Erosion: http://164.100.24.220/loksabhaquestions/annex/171/ AU3119.pdf Benefits of SHC: https://www.india.gov.in/spotlight/soil-health-card

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 47

Natural Farming

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Larry Korn (1949 -2019)

World Messenger of Natural Farming Bharat Mansata Author-Editor, Ecological Regeneration Activist Co-Founder of ‘Earthcare Books’

48 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Natural Farming

L

AGRICULTURE WORLD

arry first visited Sensei Masanobu Fukuoka’s farm in 1974, when he was 26.

He spent the next 2 years living there as a student-worker.

The first Japanese edition of Fukuoka’s ‘The One-Straw Revolution’ was published in 1975.

But it was only after the 1978 Rodale Press edition in English (co-translated and edited by Larry Korn) that “it became a sensation”. The book then went on to be translated and published in more than 25 languages, shining as an evergreen world classic on natural farming and living in harmony with the natural order.

Larry also edited Fukuoka-san’s subsequent book, ‘Sowing Seeds in the Desert’, and accompanied him on his visit to the United States in 1979 and 1986. Larry’s own book, ‘One-straw Revolutionary’, published in 2015 by Chelsea Green, offers a rare, deep, personal insight into the mind, philosophy and work of Masanobu Fukuoka.

The first Indian edition of Fukuoka’s ‘The One-Straw Revolution’ in English came out in 1984. It immediately struck a chord here, and was soon translated and published in at least 6 Indian languages, enlivening the imagination of its readers. In January,1988, Fukuoka-san came to India to receive the Desikottam Award. This was the first of his 4 visits. (That month, 'The Illustrated Weekly of India' published my article, 'The Harbingers', on Fukuoka and Bill Mollison.) On Fukuoka's last visit in 1997, he spent a day at the legendary Bhaskar Save’s farm, ‘Kalpavruksha’.

Larry Korn’s own first visit to India was in early 2018, after the two pioneering contemporary giants of natural farming – Masanobu Fukuoka and Bhaskar Save – had passed away. Larry was invited to conduct a workshop on natural farming at Raghava Raghava's farm in Karnataka. But his first homage upon landing in Mumbai was to visit the Save farm (in southernmost coastal Gujarat) that Fukuoka famously described as “the best in the world, even better than my own farm!” I had the pleasure to ac-

company Larry and translate for him on that overnight visit, along with Roman Banjankri and 2-3 more of us.

Larry gifted me several books. One is a much-treasured autographed copy of his ‘OneStraw Revolutionary’, bearing a personal message. The second is Fukuoka’s ‘Sowing Seeds in the Desert’ (edited by Larry); and the third, ‘Tending the Wild’, by M. Kat Andersen (University of California Press), a tome on ‘Native American Knowledge and the Management of California’s Natural Resources’.

After the visit to Bhaskar Save’s farm, we all spent 2 days at Vanvadi, where Larry co-anchored a workshop on natural farming and the contributions of Masanobu Fukuoka and Bhaskar Save. Later that month, I visited Raghava Raghava's farm during the last 2 days of Larry’s workshop there. We had then planned to visit Raju Titus at Hoshangabad, for whose farm too, Fukuoka had complimentary and encouraging words when he visited in 1988.

Unfortunately, the visit to Rajubhai’s farm did not happen as we had not booked our travel early enough. Instead, we took a bus to Goa, and spent a few happy hours at Clea Chandmal's permaculture farm.

It felt sad waking up to the news that Larry is no longer with us in flesh and blood. But surely, his dedication and invaluable contribution to the cause of natural farming will continue to inspire many for a very long time; and those who had the privilege to know him personally will treasure too his memories as a gentle, generous and encouraging human being.

Today, I spent a few hours reading/re-reading parts of Larry’s ‘One-Straw Revolutionary’. I have pencil-marked some lovely passages in it that I would like to share when I can. I hope too that Chelsea Green will bring out an affordable Indian edition of it, perhaps as a co-publication with Earthcare Books (www.earthcarebooks. com), so that many more people can read the book.

“There is no big or small on the earth, no fast or slow in the blue sky.”

– Masanobu Fukuoka

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 49

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

On-farm Microbial Resource Management Holds Promise for Agricultural Sustainability Dhananjaya P. Singh Principal Scientist (Biotechnology) ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms (NBAIM)

50 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

“

Every surface; every bit of air; every bit of water in your home is alive. The average house has thousands of species.”

www.krishijagran.com

~ Rob Dunn

DECEMBER 2019 | 51

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

A

gricultural production in India, although increasing on the account of the use of high yielding varieties that usually demand for high dose of external chemical inputs (fertilizers, and pesticides) for supplementing plant nutrition and pest and disease control, is facing severe challenges of sustainability. Climatic as well as anthropogenic challenges before the crop plants are obvious.

The temperature is at the rising pace, water scarcity is alarming, salinity conditions have negative growth impact, soil contamination is threatening and land encroachment through urban and industrial development is unprincipled.

Above all, the use of agricultural chemicals even though having several advantages like ease of handling, target specificity and fast results, also has raising concerns over the soil pollution, crop produce contamination and environmental threats that are becoming alarming to a balanced agro-ecosystem. T

The 126 million population of small and marginal farmers own almost 74.4 million hectares of cultivable land which is averaged to be about 0.6 hectares per head. This is again not sufficient to sustain livelihood for their families. Since the size of population is too vast, diverse and fragmented in multiple sectors, it further becomes practically non-feasible for governments to reach them with new agricultural technologies, awareness programs and farm support systems that improve farm productivity.

Altogether, the plight of a range of agricultural production systems in the wake of pressure from small land size with masses of farmers, shrinking land resources due to urbanization, diminishing biological potential of the agro-ecosystems and low natural functional performance of the soils needs to be suitably addressed in order to maintain sustainability in farm fertility and agricultural productivity that can support rural livelihood for longer duration.

hese practical threats lead to the deleterious impacts on the overall agro-ecology, plant responses to abiotic stresses, soil nutrient use efficiency and fertility, farm productivity and nutritional quality of the produce. Superfluous use of chemicals in the soils and erratic changes in conventional cultivation practices majorly cause deterioration in the physical, chemical and biological health of cultivable lands. Then the myth, ‘if health is gone, wealth is gone’ becomes true on the soils that have now started losing the natural resource wealth of microflora and fauna that make them live.

Residual contamination of persistent pesticides, heavy metals and other industrial chemicals in crop produce leads to the ill-effects on human health. This further lowers down the crop value in the open market and substantially accounts for the economic loss due to the rejection of export quality commodities.

Another challenge in the present agricultural system is the small and un-managed land holdings of majority of the farmers. Small and marginal farmers that practically hold <2 hectares of the land. This farming community accounts for almost 86.2% of the all the farmers in the country but own just 47.3% of the crop area (Agriculture Survey 2015-16). In contrast, the land holding of medium farmers that account for 13.2% of all the farmers, rests from 2 to 10 hectares covering almost 43.6% of the crop area.

52 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Therefore, it becomes highly desirable to introduce such agricultural practices that help in curtailing dependency on high input-farming system, reducing input cost due to superfluous external chemical inputs at the farms and minimizing crop produce contamination due to the hazardous farm chemicals. Such a farming system could be helpful in balancing organic and microbial richness of the soils to support plant growth, crop productivity and stress management to obtain nutritionally safer food for all.

Microbial inoculants are now becoming alternatives to the external chemical inputs. The industrial formulations of various tiny, unseen but functionally powerful microorganisms are becoming popular as biofertilizers, biopesticides or bio-stimulants. Microbial species are omnipresent natural resources with which the soils, the water bodies and even the plant and animal kingdoms are equally blessed. Beneficial micro-

www.krishijagran.com

organisms are the central players in managing agro-ecosystem that benefit soil fertility and crop production through the recycling of mineral nutrients, carbon, gases and biomass.

Microbes including bacteria (actinomycetes, cyanobacteria, methylotrophs), the fungi and mycorrhiza represent structurally and functionally the most diversified and continuously evolving life forms on the earth in all kinds of normal to extreme habitats. This is how they have evolved intrinsic strategies for maintaining ecological fitness under severe stressful conditions in the environment, and thus pave the way for keeping the soils fertile and responsive for crop production.

The characteristics of agriculturally important microorganisms (AIMs) have led to the development and commercialization of many microbe-based bioformulations known as biofertilizers, biopesticides, microbial inoculants or

DECEMBER 2019 | 53

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

biological stimulants. Many of the products are now known for their multiple capabilities of biological nitrogen fixation, phosphate, zinc, iron and manganese solubilization, potassium mineralization, siderophore chelation, phytohormone production and biological pest/disease management.

Commercially viable environmental friendly biofertilizers that penetrate agriculture sector globally attract a market size of UD$ 1.8 billion in 2018 with an annual growth rate of almost 14.3% during 2011-2018. Presently the market size is of worth Rs. 750 Crore but is likely to grow up to Rs. 1000 crore in coming years.

The market is basically represented either by powder-based or liquid formulations of nitrogen fixers (Rhizobium, Azotobacter, Azospirillum, blue-green algae; P-solubilizing and K-mobilizing bacteria and Mycorrhiza. In Indian agriculture, the size of biofertilizer market is very small in comparison to the chemical fertilizers but it is growing annually by almost 12-15%. Compared to the microbe-based biofertilizers, the market size of the biopesticides, the formulations of bacterial and fungal organisms that suppress the growth and development of pests and disease causing agents (that is why called bio-control agents) has attained remarkable growth rate of 36.6% (consumption rate) and is growing annually by 14.7% during 2014-2018 to reach revenue worth Rs. 21300 million in 2018.

The Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) of the Government if India has presently registered >950 biopesticide formulations produced by different companies across the country taking various species of Trichoderma, Pseudomonas, Bacillus, Beauveria, Metarhizium, Verticilium, Paecilomyces and NPV as the sole microbial species.

These beneficial microorganisms of the formulations enrich soils and plants by improving nutrient use efficiency, boost intrinsic plant immunity, improve performance of the rhizosphere (the root zone in the closest vicinity of the soils), diminish pathogenic bacteria and fungi, suppress pest population and interact well with the plant roots for nutrient and mineral acquisition.

Furthermore, benefits of the use of biofertilizers and biopesticides lie in their long-term population built-up upon continuous application in the soils under favouring ecological conditions.

In contrast to the chemical farm inputs, the concentration of which keep on ceasing due to 54 | DECEMBER 2019

photobiological degradation, microbial species persistently flourish in the soils under conducive soil conditions. Besides, high population of introduced microbial species in the inoculants often encourage native beneficial microbial diversity which further improve soil biology and fertility.

Clubbed with the crop plants grown in the soils and the existing diversity of microbes, externally applied microbial species benefit crop production in practically non-contaminated manner.

The farm produce thus obtained potentially has high commercial value and becomes ideal food for healthy human life.

However, since agricultural soils are mostly poor in organic matter (OM) that majorly contributes to the nutrient turnover and cation exchange capacity (CEC) of soils. This supports proliferous growth of introduced species of microorganisms as well as richness of the native microbial diversity that recycle, fix, sequester or deplete minerals and nutrients for the easy uptake by the plant roots. The OM further improves physicochemical conditions of the soils to make it tough for the abrupt abiotic climatic factors that usually disturb microbial diversity richness and plant health. This is why the continuous depleting scenario of the soil OM is making soils prone for becoming non-responsive and non-functional against more and more chemical fertilizer applications.

As a solution to such problems, microbe-based conversion of on-farm agricultural residues, the most easily available resources with the farmers, into value-added biological inputs for the farms could become the key to enhance the level of OM in agricultural soils. This is why the biological, socio-ecological and economic reasons of depleting soils, reasons for dependency on low-external farm inputs, practices to be adopted for improving soil OM and technologies for the management of on-farm agricultural residues need to be categorically and specifically debated among the farming communities. There should be an interactive platform for the interaction of farming and scientific communities to engage themselves for creating a better understanding of the problems at the farms and the technically-viable and ecologically sound ways to resolve the challenging issues.

In the present scenario the farmers are least aware about the microbe-mediated practices of raising crops with minimized chemical inputs www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

and other microbial interventions that can have transformational changes in their lives. It is challenging to turn the focus of small and marginal farmers towards environmentally sound alternatives. However, efforts need to be made continuously and so, are being made.

Looking into the plenty of agricultural residual resources available with the farmers after the post harvest of every crop, we encouraged them to biologically convert own agro-wastes using rapid bioconversion technology at small scale (Figure 1). In a phased manner, the overall decomposition process took almost 45 to 60 days depending upon the soft or hard residual materials. For soft residues, it took first 15 days to complete a cycle of thermophilic stage (temperature range 55-60°C) after addition of the specific ingredients, followed by an incubation of 15 days after a turning with addition of 50% of the same ingredients that engaged enormous microbial population (Figure 2). This process yielded raw decomposed product, which entered the third phase with the addition of specific decomposer microbial inoculants (bacterial and fungal consortia) and ended in next 15 days. The fine decomposed product thus obtained can be used in the farmers fields to raise organic matter in the soils.

Alternatively, this product may further be incubated with the specific microbial formulations like N-fixers, P-solubilizers or biocontrol agents to get fortified products for customized purposes in the fields. Such products when applied at the time of field preparation for seeding while mixing them with the conventional manures (FYM) or vermicompost in a proportion of 1020% (w/w) can enhance helped soils hold more water and microbial population.

Therefore, the application of on-farm agrowaste management practices entwined with the microbial resources has potential benefits for the water budgeting in the agricultural farms that are especially being used for the regular production of commercial crops like fruits, flowers and vegetables. With the help of state (Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna) and central (ICAR, DST and DBT) funding, we have made efforts

to reach >3000 farmers in the five districts of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and propagated among them the application of microbe-mediated practices for the production of rice, wheat, flowers, vegetable crops.

The bioconversion technology along with the practice of per crop repetitive usage of microbial inoculants (like BIONPK, BIOZINC, BGA) have been promoted among the resource poor farmers through on-farm demonstrations (Figure 3). Large scale fields trials on wheat, rice, vegetable and flowers were conducted in the villages of Mau, Azamgarh, Varanasi and Chandauli districts to demonstrate the impact of microbial applications on the crop production.

The efforts made over three years have not only successfully helped to reduce chemical fertilizers by almost 30% and thus saved input-cost but also yielded confidence building of the farmers in the microbial applications. For the nursery plants, the combination of a microbial fortified product supplemented with the botanical liquid formulation have saved seedlings up to 30-40% from the soil borne pathogenic fungal diseases.

The journey of the promotion of these products for their establishment in the main stream agricultural production is still continued in full swing. However, besides having the transformational potentials, the technologies based on microbial interventions have only limited access to small and marginal farmers. They are not even aware about the very basic initiatives and therefore, a concerted and integrated effort is essential from the line department of agriculture, KVKs, agro-industries, agricultural activists and NGOs on popularization and promotional aspects.

Since the key player in these technologies, the microbes, are the unseen organisms and the subject is very much technical and scientific, special care is required to first train the machinery which will be involved to extend awareness support to the farmers on microbe-mediated crop production practices. Only then the benefits of on-farm microbe-based management can be availed towards reaching closer to a more sustainable agricultural system called ‘Organic Farming’ or ‘Zero Budget Farming’.

Acknowledgement: Author is thankful to Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Department of Biotechnology (DBT) for the funding support under SSTP and BIOTECH-KISAN project, respectively.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 55

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Sustainability

ROLE OF MICROBES in Soil Health and Fertility

Dr. GV Ramanjaneyulu1

56 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

â&#x20AC;&#x153;

Every day we live and every meal we eat we influence the great microbial organ inside us - for better or for worse. ~ Giulia Enders,

1 Agricultural Scientist with Centre for Sustainable Agriculture working on natural/organic farming across the country and can be reached at ramoo@csa-india.org. www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 57

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Healthy soil is the key for sustainable production. Reduction in application of soil organic matter and excessive dependency on chemicals has made soil unproductive. The reduction in organic matter also has led to reduction in moisture holding capacity of the soils increasing the risk of crop failures. Absence of humus in soil also leads to soil compaction and destruction of soil structure.

The cycling of nutrients in an ecosystem are interlinked by a number of processes that move elements (atoms) from and through organisms and to and from the atmosphere, soil and/or rocks, and water. Nutrients can flow between these compartments along a variety of pathways. These pathways can be chemical processes or biological processes. They can be natural or Synthetic.

Soil health, first of all, recognizes that soil is a living system. And to make the soil survive with various micro-flora and fauna, some energy is needed which is provided by the organic matter.

We must realize that most of these microbes including earthworms as well as mycorrhizae are heterotrophic needing external energy.

Industrial or Synthetic Processes: Plants absorb nitrogen in the form of nitrates or ammonia.

Nitrogen and Hydrogen are combined at 5000 C temperature and 200 atm pressure. This uses natural gas, coal or other petroleum products.

Similarly, phosphatic fertilisers are made from rockphospate and potassic fertilisers or other micronutrients are made from their respective mineral sources.

The seminal principle of sustainable Soil Fertility Management is that instead of trying to feed the plant directly, the objective should be to nourish the soil. The objective of sustainable agriculture is not mere non-chemical agriculture. It is depending on the local resources, it is making best use of natures’ products and processes; it is replacing the external chemicals with farmers’ knowledge, management skills and labor.

Nutrient Cycles The elements of earth and life are the same; they just find themselves in different places at different times. Most of the calcium in your bones came from cows/buffaloes, who got it from paddy straw or groundnut cake, which took it from rocks that were once formed from the volcano or in the sea. Of the 50 to 70 elements that are found in living things, only 15 or so account for the major portion of living biomass. Among them Carbon, Oxygen which are absorbed from air, Hydrogen and Oxygen are absorbed through water, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potash absorbed from soil form more than 95% of the plant nutrition and rest are micronutrients.

The major sources of nutrients are • • • •

The organic matter consisting of the living organisms and their debris (biomass) The available-soil nutrients held to surface of soil particles or in solution.

The native minerals in soils or rocks that are unavailable to living organisms.

The elements in air which can be found in the atmosphere or in the ground.

58 | DECEMBER 2019

Natural or biological processes: The microbes play an important role in converting elements from one form to another through mineralization and immobilization processes. For example rhizobium and azatobactor can convert atmospheric nitrogen into nitrates and Phosphorus Solubilizing Bacteria (PSB) can convert unavailable forms of phosphorus into available forms.

Microbes also decompose the plant/animal biomass and release the nutrients into the soil.

In general, most plants grow by absorbing nutrients from the soil. Their ability to do this depends on the nature of the soil. Depending on its location, a soil contains some combination of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter.

Soil physical and chemical properties: The soil texture and its pH determine the extent to which nutrients are available to plants. Soil Texture is the amount of sand, silt, clay, and organic matter available in the soil. Soil texture affects how well nutrients and water are retained in the soil.

Clays and organic soils hold nutrients and water much better than sandy soils. Soil pH is one of the most important soil properties that affects the availability of nutrients. Macronutrients tend to be less available in soils with low pH. Micronutrients tend to be less available in soils with high pH Microbes also play an important role in producing humus which improves soil structure and also change soil chemical properties like pH. According to a new estimate, there are about one trillion species of microbes on Earth, and 99.999 www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

percent of them have yet to be discovered. Very few are characterised and among them few are considered to be beneficial to the human beings in decomposition of organic matter and are nutrient conversion from unavailable to available forms.

Animals, particularly ruminants’ host a variety of these microorganisms (bacteria, fungi, and single-celled animals called protozoa) which digest cellulose, lignin and other plant material.

This makes a whole new energy source available to the animals. There’s a lot of energy in cellulose, but most animals are simply unable to digest it because they don’t have the necessary enzymes.

This property of these enzymes secreted by the organisms to digest plant material is what is used in composting and other processes. Among the microorganisms present in the dung all may not be useful for agriculture and similarly all may not survive outside the animal gut. The microorganisms which are culturable outside animal gut and are useful for the agriculture can be used for agriculture.

on the food they eat. The foraging and fodder based animals have more useful bacteria (as they are used in digesting the food animal eats) while the stall fed, feed based animals may have lesser diversity of microorganisms. Lactating animals may have additional enzymes which non lactating or male animals may lack.

Based on this we suggest people to use 1.dung from any animal (cow, ox, buffalo, desi or crossbred). Prefer animals which are foraging and feed on the green/dry organic matter than on grain or concentrates.

2.management of desi animals is easy as they are small in size, low in input requirement.

3.managing cow is easier compared to buffalo as cow has a thicker skin and manage their body temperature easily. Buffaloes on the contrary have thinner skin and cannot manage their body temperature. Either they have to be kept in huts/ shed which provide shade or they tend to go and rest in water bodies/mud etc.

Among these beneficial microorganisms which can be cultured the following properties can be seen 1.cellulose, lignin and other material digesting bacteria which aid in composting 2.plant growth promoting bacteria like IAA (Indole Acetic Acid), 3.Nutrient fixing and mobilising like nitrogen fixation, Phosphorus solubulising, ammonia production etc 4.Anti fungal activity The microorganisms present in the dung can be cultured by adding suitable nutrients. There are number of indigenous products like Jeevamrit, Panchagavya, Amritjal developed based on these principles.

The microorganisms present in the dung varies mostly based on the food they eat rather than breed.

Even all the microorganisms present in the dung cannot be cultured. For agricultural purposes, culturable beneficial microorganisms are important. Centre for Sustainable Agriculture and many other organisations have done such studies to see if there is any big difference in the microbial content between different breeds of animals. The differences were observed based www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 59

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Extension

Strengthening Research to Farm Extension Channels Preeti Bharti, Sheetal Sharma and Judith Carla Dela Torre, IRRI

60 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Extension

Improving Farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Productivity and Profitability

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 61

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Extension

“

Different extension approaches have been used to bridge the knowledge gap between researchers and farmers. A mix of different channels and modes works best in bringing developmental change in the farming communities’ practices as it involves a change in their behavior.

I

n Odisha, over half of all farmers fall under marginal and smallholder category. These resource-poor farmers generally rely on the farming advice passed on to them by their forefathers and their peers. This, however, results in farmers having limited exposure to advanced agricultural technologies. To improve their productivity and profitability, we need to transfer new and improved technologies to them to complement their indigenous knowledge.

E-agriculture: Taking farming into the future In the last decade, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in agriculture or e-agriculture, has been widely used as a tool for disseminating advanced knowledge and information. The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has developed many e-agriculture tools to deliver advances in rice science to the end users. These tools are developed in different regional languages to break the literacy barrier and deliver the information using simpler terms that are easier for the target users to understand.

One e-agriculture tool, Rice Crop Manager (RCM), is being used to improve the crop management practices in rice fields in South Asia. It provides farmers with tailor-made field-specific crop management recommendations. In India, this tool caters to rice growers in Bihar, Eastern Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha. In Odisha, after its successful evaluation in 2016, RCM is being widely disseminated among the resource-poor farmers in the state. To date, around 90,000 farmers in the state have benefitted from the tool.

Different extension channels have been identified and a mix of these is being deployed to reach out to even more farmers. IRRI provides the technical know-how and builds knowledge partnership with different implementing agencies to ensure that knowledge gaps are filled through different networks and modes.

62 | DECEMBER 2019

Government: Strengthening existing network The extension channel of Odisha’s agricultural department is the most robust and widespread in the state. IRRI, in collaboration with the Government of Odisha, is investing in developing the capacity of extension workers to ensure the sustainability of the usage of RCM. The extension workers at the block and village level have been trained through Training of trainers (ToT) program to operate the tool, interview the farmers and to transfer the crop management advisories to them in a printed one-page format.

Currently, the field staff members are reaching out to the farmers at their doorstep and providing them with the RCM recommendations.

Using the learning-by-doing approach, farmers are being motivated to use and compare the recommendations with their traditional practices to see for themselves the benefits of using RCM. Along with the push strategy going to their doorstep, extension workers also conduct awareness through demonstrations to create a demand for RCM recommendations from farmers before the start of every rice cropping season. To cater to those demands, service kiosks, known as RCM Kendra, equipped with ICT devices have been established at every block to serve as one-stop providers of RCM agro-advisories Non-government organizations: Reaching out to poorest of poor Non-government organizations (NGOs), like government agencies, have a wide network and serve large rural communities. Their approaches include establishing self-help groups, farmers’ clubs, model villages, etc. making NGOs an important channel for information dissemination.

Generally, NGOs share a strong and close association with farming communities which gives them an upper hand in motivating farmers to try new technologies. However, they lack the techwww.krishijagran.com

Extension

AGRICULTURE WORLD

nical knowledge and in-depth understanding of modern agricultural techniques.

IRRI has formed symbiotic partnerships with many leading NGOs in Odisha where experts from the institute help the NGOs expand their knowledge base on rice farming. At the same time, IRRI utilizes the NGOs’ capacity to mobilize and motivate farming communities in adopting better crop management practices through RCM. The NGO’s community resource persons are trained to use RCM and reach out to the rice-growing farmers within their areas.

Mobile technology: Better farmers’ decision-making through SMS and voice calls The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) Kisan Sanchar Limited works to empower farmers and people in rural India with relevant information and services through a sustainable and affordable communication network. Precision Agriculture for Development (PAD) is an organization that harnesses technological and research innovations to improve the lives of smallholder farmers in India and other countries. IRRI collaborated with IFFCO Kisan and PAD to improve farmers’ decision-making with improved techniques, fertilizer rates, weather forecasts, and soil health.

Farmers who registered their mobile number through the RCM app receive customized voice messages and SMS on crop management practices specific to their field. Farmers have responded favorably to the system saying it provides them with additional guidance on making agricultural management decisions for their rice crop.

Delivering scientific knowledge to the farmers Adoption of new technology requires time, effort, and the right approaches using the appropriate channels. IRRI, through its innovative ways of using e-agriculture tools to deliver the scientific findings to the farming community, is working towards exploring, strengthening, and establishing a mix of agricultural extension channels in the agricultural system. By doing so, it will ensure the sustainability and scalability of RCM—and other e-agriculture tools— that aims to contribute to better soil health, promote the balanced use of nutrients, and increase the productivity and profitability of rice cropping systems in Odisha, India. www.krishijagran.com

Liquid Seaweed Plant Biostimulant

A

Patented Technology Process for Preparation of LSF from Brown Algae (Sargassum) and Red Algae (Kappaphycus).

Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute has developed a Liquid Seaweed Plant Biostimulant.

The technology is a patented one and is also been bought by one of India’s leading Manufacture Group for Granulated Biostimulant and Plant growth Promoters, the Vikas Crop Care. Dr. Arup Ghosh and his fellow scientists have been credited for cutting edge sustainable technologies through interdisciplinary approaches involving agronomy, Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, life cycle assessment in the areas of algae based crop biostimulants and organic farming.

A multi institutional ,multi crop project where in the sea weed sap were extensively tested in different agro ecological regions across 20 states in India in collaboration with 43 State Agricultural Institutes and ICAR institutes. The trial results from more than 400 sites were very encouraging as 13-36 % improvement in productivity was observed .

DECEMBER 2019 | 63

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Nano Fertilizers is a new way to increase Nutrients use efficiency in Crop Production

64 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

MEENA DHARAM SINGH1*, GAUTAM CHIRAG2, PATIDAR OM PRAKASH3, MEENA HARI MOHAN4, PRAKASHA G. 5 AND VISHWAJITH6 1, 5, 6 1 Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065 2 Department of Plant Pathology, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065 3 ICAR-Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India 4Department of Soil Sciences, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 65

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

A

bstract- Nano fertilizers are the important tools in agriculture to improve crop growth, yield and quality parameters with increase nutrient use efficiency, reduce wastage of fertilizers and cost of cultivation. Nano-fertilizers are very effective for precise nutrient management in precision agriculture with matching the crop growth stage for nutrient and may provide nutrient throughout the crop growth period.

Nano-fertilizers increase crop growth up to optimum concentrations further increase in concentration may inhibit the crop growth due to the toxicity of nutrient. Nano-fertilizers provide more surface area for different metabolic reactions in the plant which increase rate of photosynthesis and produce more dry matter and yield of the crop. It is also prevent plant from different biotic and abiotic stress.

nano-particle develop with the help of nanotechnology can be exploited in the value chain of entire agriculture production system [4].

Challenges & Solutions of present agricultural practices Present agriculture is generally chemically intensive where using more doses of chemicals for insect, disease, weeds and nutrient management to get maximum production per unit area without caring about natural resources and ecosystems.

In present agriculture fertilizer contributes to the tune of 50% of the agricultural production but increasing use higher doses of fertilizers does not guarantee to improved crop yield but it leads several problems like degradation of soil and pollution of surface and underground water resources. Solution: Increase the fertilizer nutrient use efficiency and reduce doses. According to [5], reported that fertilizer alone contributed 50% in crop production.

Introduction World agricultural cropping systems intensively using large amount of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides to achieve more production per unit area but using more doses than optimum of these chemicals and fertilizers leads to several problems like environment pollution (soil, water, air pollution), low input use efficiency, decrease quality of food material, develop resistance in different weeds, diseases, insects, less income from the production, soil degradation, deficiency of micro nutrient in soil, toxicity to different beneficial living organism present above and below the soil surface etc.

Despite these problems there is also challenge to feed the growing population of the world [1, 2].

Therefore in the future, there is need to produce nutritive agricultural produce rich in protein and other essential nutrient required to the human and animal consumption that is why emphasis should be laid on production of high quality food with the required level of nutrients and proteins [1, 3].

For solving these problems in crop production nano-fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides may effective tools in agriculture for better pest and nutrient management because these nano-materials having more penetration capacity, surface area and use efficiency which avoid residues in environment. Size below 100 nm nano-particles can use as fertilizer for efficient nutrient management which are more ecofriendly and reduce environment pollution. Hence, these agricultural useable 66 | DECEMBER 2019

High transportation cost of fertilizers due to require in large quantity. Solution: Decrease the application rate of fertilizers. More wastes of fertilizers material by using over doses in crop production. Solution: Value-addition to traditional fertilizers and reduce doses per unit area.

Multi nutrient deficiency in the soils. Solution: combine application of macro and micronutrient sources.

Nanotechnology applications in agriculture Now a days nanotechnology providing different nano devices and nano material which having a unique role in agriculture such as nano biosensors to detect moisture content and nutrient status in the soil and also applicable for site specific water and nutrient management, Nano-fertilizers for efficient nutrient management, Nano-herbicides for selective weed control in crop field, Nanonutrient particles to increase seed vigor, Nano-pesticides for efficient pest management. alginate/ chitosan nano-particles can be use as herbicide carrier material specially for herbicide such as paraquat [6]. Nano herbicides are effective in weed management [7]. Hence, nanotechnology have greater role in crop production with environmental safety, ecological sustainability and economic stability. The nano-particles produced with the help of nanotechnology can be exploited in the value chain of entire agriculture production system [8].

www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

What is nano fertilizer?

Nano-fertilizers â&#x20AC;&#x153;Nano fertilizers are synthesized or modified form of traditional fertilizers, fertilizers bulk materials or extracted from different vegetative or reproductive parts of the plant by different chemical, physical, mechanical or biological methods with the help of nanotechnology used to improve soil fertility, productivity and quality of agricultural produces.

Nanoparticles can made from fully bulk materials [9]. At nano scale physical and chemical properties are differ than bulk material. Similarly reported [10]. Rock phosphate if use as nano form it may increase availability of phosphorus to the plant because direct application of rock phosphate nano particles on the crop may prevent fixation in the soil similarly there is no silicic acid, iron and calcium for fixation of the phosphorus hence it increase phosphorus availability to the crop plants[11].

Important properties of nano fertilizers which facilitate higher nutrient use efficiency The nano-fertilizers have higher surface area it is mainly due to very less size of particles which provide more site to facilitate different metabolic process in the plant system result production of more photosynthets. Due to higher surface area and very less size they have high reactivity with other compound. They have high solubility in different solvent such as water. Particles size of nano-fertilizers is less than 100 nm which facilitates more penetration of nano particles in to the plant from applied surface such as soil or leaves.

Nano fertilizer have large surface area and particle size less than the pore size of root and leaves of the plant which can increase penetration into the plant from applied surface and improve uptake and nutrient use efficiency of the nanofertilizer. Reduction of particle size results in increased specific surface area and number of particles per unit area of a fertilizer that provide more opportunity to contact of nano-fertilizers which leads to more penetration and uptake of the nutrient [12].

Fertilizers encapsulated in nano-particles will increase availability and uptake of nutrient to the crop plants[13]. Zeolite based nano-fertilizers are capable to release nutrient slowly to the crop plant which increase availability of nutrient to the crop though out the growth period which www.krishijagran.com

prevent loss of nutrient from denitrification, volatilization, leaching and fixation in the soil especially NO3-N and NH4-N. Particle size below 100 nm nano-particles can use as fertilizer for efficient nutrient management which are more eco-friendly and reduce environment pollution [4].

Main reason for high interest in fertilizers is mainly their penetration capacity, size and very higher surface area which is usually differ from the same material found in bulk form. This is partially due to the fact that nano particles show a very high surface: volume ratio. Thus, the reactive surface area is proportionally over-represented in nano particles compared to larger particles. Particle surface area increases with decreasing particle size and the surface free energy of the particle is a function of its size. Similar result obtained[12].

Achievements of nano-fertilizers Nano fertilizers providing greater role in crop production and several research study revealed that nano fertilizers enhanced growth, yield and quality parameters of the crop which result better yield and quality food product for human and animal consumption. This translates into an improvement to three major areas of production. Yields: Several research studies revealed that application of nano-fertilizers significantly increase crop yield over control or without application of nano-fertilzer it is mainly because of increasing growth of plant parts and metabolic process such as photosynthesis leads to higher photosynthets accumulation and translocation to the economic parts of the plant. Foliar application of nano particles as fertilizer significantly increase in yield of the crop[14].

Nutritional Value: Nano fertilizers provide more surface area and more availability of nutrient to the crop plant which help to increase these quality parameters of the plant (such as protein, oil content, sugar content) by enhancing the rate of reaction or synthesis process in the plant system. Application of zinc and iron on the plant increase total carbohydrate, starch, IAA, chlorophyll and protein content in the grain [15]. NanoFe2O3 increase photosynthesis and growth of the peanut plant [16].

Health: Some nutrient also responsible disease resistance to the plant and due to the more availability of nano nutrient to the plant it prevent from disease, nutrient deficiency and other biDECEMBER 2019 | 67

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

otic and abiotic stress which indicate that nano fertilizers enhance overall health of the plant.

ZnO nano-particles also helpful to plant under stress conditions [17].

Aqueous solutions of Ag+ and Au+ drastically reduced the body weight of P. ricini larvae [18].

Advantages of nano fertilizers over traditional fertilizers

Reported similar result that nano-TiO2 treated seed produced plant recorded more dry weight, higher photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll-a formation compared to the control [28]. Which indicate that nano fertilizers significantly improve seed germination and overall growth of the plant.

Yield & Yield Parameters

Nano fertilizers are advantageous over conventional fertilizers as they increase soil fertility yield and quality parameters of the crop, they are nontoxic and less harmful to environment and humans, they minimize cost and maximize profit. Nano particles increase nutrients use efficiency and minimizing the costs of environment protection [19]. Improvement in the nutritional content of crops and the quality of the taste. Optimum use of iron and increase protein content in the grain of the wheat [20]. Enhance plants growth by resisting diseases and improving stability of the plants by anti-bending and deeper rooting of crops.[8] also suggested that balanced fertilization to the crop plant may be achieved through nanotechnology.

Effects of nano-fertilizers on seeds germination & growth parameters of the plant.

Several researches reported that nano fertilizers significantly influenced the seed germination and seedling growth which revealed the effect of nano fertilizers on seed and seed vigor. Nano fertilizers can easily penetrate into the seed and increase availability of nutrient to the growing seedling which result healthy and more shoot length and root length but if concentration is more than the optimum it may show inhibitory effects on the germination and seedling growth of the plant. The toxicity of ZnO nano-aprticles on the root growth of garlic (Allium sativum L.) [21].

Nano particles have both positive and negative effects on the plant [22]. Nano ZnO recorded higher peanut seeds germination percent and root growth compare to bulk zinc sulphate [23].

Similarly positive effective of nano-scale SiO2 and TiO2 on germination was reported in soya bean [16]. Reported higher seed germination, shoot length, root length under nano fertilizers treatment over control or without nano fertilizer treated seeds. Nano fertilizers increase availability of nutrient to the growing plant which increase chlorophyll formation, photosynthesis rate, dry matter production and result improve overall growth of the plant [24-27].

68 | DECEMBER 2019

Nano fertilizers enhance the seed germination, vigor, growth parameters (plant height, leaf area, leaf area index number of leaves per plant) dry matter production, chlorophyll production, rate of the photosynthesis which result more production and translocation of photosynthets to different parts of the plant.[5] reported similar result that nano-TiO2 treated seed produced plant recorded more dry weight, higher photosynthetic rate, chlorophyll-a formation compared to the control.

This improve translocation of photosynthets from source (leaves) to sink (economic part of the plant it may be grain, tuber, bulb, stem, fibre and leaves.) which result in more yield and quality parameters from nano-fetilizers treated plants compare to without nano fertilizers treated plants or traditional fertilizers treated plants.

[29-31] reported similar result and nano hydroxyl appetite (nHA) application produced 5.9 g soybean seeds per plant, compared to 4.9 g per plant under regular P treatment, and merely 1.1 and 0.6 g soybean per plant respectively for the controls without P application [29].

This is the first report on synthesis and application of nHA as nano P fertilizer for increasing soybean yields.The estimated yield increase by nano-K fertilizer at 20 kg K2O/ha over MOP at the same level is around 8 % and no significant difference between 20 kg K2O/ha and 30 Kg K2O/ha in the form of nano-K [31]. Accordingly, improvement of grain yield with the application of nano-K fertilizer is highly correlated with the increase in seeds/panicles. [20, 32] also reported higher value of yield parameters under nano fertilizers treated plants compare to bulk nutrient sources. Iron content was more in the plant under nano iron treated plant than control [22].

Need to Study Research is underway to develop nano-composite to supply all the required essential nutrients www.krishijagran.com

Sustainability

AGRICULTURE WORLD

in suitable proportion through smart delivery system which may help in balance supply of nutrient to the crop, there is need to study about nano nutrient delivery in the plant systems, assess the impact of nano fertilizers on soil and soil beneficial microorganism, fate of nano fertilizers in soil and plant have to be studied, need to optimizes concentration and doses of nano fertilizers for different crop and site specific management of nano fertilizers in precision agriculture these are several issues need to standardise to achieve better result from nano-fertiliers in crop production.

Conclusion Application of different nano-fertilizers have greater role in enhancing crop production this will reduce the cost of fertilizer for crop production and also minimize the pollution hazard.

The application of nano-fertilizers in agriculture should have a greater concern to society. Fertilizer nutrient use efficiency in crop production can be enhanced with effective use of nano-fertilizers. Nano fertilizers improve crop growth and yield up to optimum applied doses and concentration but they also have inhibitory effect on crop plant if concentration is more than the optimum which result reduces growth and yield of the crop.

Acknowledgement/Funding: Are thankful to University of Agricultural Sciences, Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560065 and ICAR -Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

References [1] Ghaly A. E. (2009) American J. Biochem. Biotechnol, 5, 210-220.

[2] Quasem J. M., Mazahreh A. S. and Abu-alruz K. (2009) American J. Applied Sci., 6, 888-896.

[3] Pijls L., Ashwell M. and Lambert J. (2009) Food Chem., 113, 748-753.

[4] Joseph T. and Morrisson M. (2006) Eur. Nanotechnol. Gateway.

[5] Braun H. and Roy R. N. (1983) Proc. Symp. Efficient use of fertilizers in agriculture development in Plant and Soil Science, 10, 251-270.

[6] Silva M. S., Cocenza D. S., Grillo R., Melo N. F. S., Tonello P. S., Oliveira L. C., Cassimiro D. L., Rosa A. H. and Fraceto L. F., (2011) J. Hazardous Materials, 190(1-3), 366-374.

[7] Chinnamuttu C. R. and Kokiladevi E. (2007) Weed management through nano-herbicides. In: Application of nanotechnology in agriculture.

[8] Tarafdar J. C., Raliya R. and Tathore I. (2012a) Journal of Bionanoscience, 6, 84-89.

[9] Brunnert I., Wick P., Manserp., Spohnp., Grass R. N., Limbach L. K., Bruinink A. and Stark W. J. (2006) Environmental Science & Technology, 40, 4374-4381.

[10] Nel A., Xia T., Madlerl and Li N. (2006) Science, 311, 622-627.

[11] Nanotechnology in Agriculture, Scope and Current Relevance (2013) National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi.

[12] Liscano J. F., Wilson C. E., Norman R. J. and Slaton N. A. (2000) AAES Res Bulletin, 963, 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;31.

[13] Tarafdar J. C., Xiang Y., Wang W. N., Dong Q. and Biswas P. (2012c) Applied Biological Research, 14, 138-144.

[14] Tarafdar J. C., Agarwal A., Raliya R., Kumar P., Burman U. and Kaul R. K. (2012b) Advanced Science, Engineering and Medicine, 4, 1-5.

[15] Rajaie M. and Ziaeyan A. H. (2009) Int. J. Plant Product, 3(3), 35-440.

[16] Liu X.M., Zhang F.D., Zhang S.Q., He X.S., Fang R., Feng Z. and Wang Y. (2005) Plant Nutr. Fert. Sci., 11, 14-18.

[17] Tarafdar J. C., Raliya R. and Tathore I. (2012a) Journal of Bionanoscience, 6, 84-89.

[18] Sahayaraj K. Madasamy M. and Anbu R. A. (2014) J. Biopest., 9 (1), 63-72.

[19] Naderi M. R. and Abedi A. (2012) J. Nanotech., 11(1), 18-26.

[20] Farajzadeh Memari Tabrizi E., Yarnia M., Khorshidi M. B. and Ahmadzadeh V. (2009) J. Food Agr. Env., 7(2), 611-615.

[21] Talgar S., Jianxiu G. U., Changshan X. U., Zhikun Y., Qing Z., Yuxue L. and Yichun L. (2011) Nanotoxicology, 1â&#x20AC;&#x201C;8.

[22] Nadi E., Aynehband A. and Mojaddam M., (2013) Int. J. Biosci., 3, 267-272.

[23] Prasad T.N.V.K.V., Sudhakar P., Sreenivasulu Y., Latha P., Munaswamy V., Raja Reddy K., Sreeprasad T.S., Sajanlal P.R. and Pradeep T. (2012) J. of plant nutrition., 35, 905-927.

[24] Hediat M.H. and Salama (2012) International Research Journal of Biotechnology, 3, 190-197.

[25] Kannan N., Rangaraj S., Gopalu K., Rathinam Y. and Venkatachalam R. (2012) Curr. Nanosci., 8, 902-908.

[26] Mahajan P., Shailesh, K., Dhoke R. K. and Anand K. (2013) Nanotechnol., 3, 4052-4081.

[27] Suriyaprabha R., Karunakaran G., Yuvakkumar R., Rajendran V. and Kannan N. (2012) J. Current Nanosci., 8, 902-908.

[28] Zheng L., Hong F., Lu S. and Liu C. (2005) Biol. Trace Elem. Res. 104, 83-91.

[29] Hamid R.B. (2012) Arpn J. of Agri. and Biological Sci., 7 (4), 233-237.

[30] Rattan L. and Ruiqiang Liu. (2014) Scientific Reports, 4, 5686.

[31] Sirisena D. N., Dissanayake D. M. N., SomaweeraK. A. T. N., Karunaratne V. and Kottegoda N., (2013) Annals of SriLanka Department of Agric., 15, 257-262.

[32] Lin D. and Xing B. (2007) Environ. Pollut., 150, 243-250 This Review Article was first published in International Journal of Agriculture Sciences ISSN: 0975-3710&E-ISSN: 0975-9107, Volume 9, Issue 7, 2017.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 69

Nutrition

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Silicon Nutrition in

RICE C. Krithika and B. Balaganesh Assistant Professor, Dept. of SS&AC, CAT, Theni Ph.d Scholar, Dept. of SS&AC, TNAU, Coimbatore

70 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

S

AGRICULTURE WORLD

ilicon (Si) is the second most abundant element in the earth's crust. It is not considered as an essential element, but is a beneficial element for crop growth, especially for Poaceae crops. Si concentration of plant shoots varies greatly among plant species, ranging from 0.1 to 10% Si on a dry weight basis. Silica strengthens the plant, protects the plant against pests and diseases, increases crop production and quality, stimulates active immune systems of plants, increases plant nutrition, increase plant salt resistance and neutralizes heavy metal toxicity in acid soils. Si fertilizer has a double effect on the soilâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;plant system.

First, improved plant-silicon nutrition strengthens plant-protective properties against insect pests incidence, and unfavorable climatic conditions. Second, Si optimizes soil fertility through improved water, physico-chemical soil properties and maintenance of nutrients in plant-available forms.

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 71

Nutrition

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Silicon in soils: In the soil solution, Si is present as Monosilicic acid and Polysilicic acid as well as complexes with organic and inorganic compounds such as aluminium oxides and hydroxides. While it is the PAS (plant available silicon) that is taken up by the plants and has a direct influence on crop growth. The solubility of Si in the soil is affected by a number of dynamic processes occurring in the soil including the particle size of the silicon fertilizer, the soil acidity (pH), organic complexes, presence of aluminium (Al), iron (Fe) and phosphate ions, dissolution reactions and soil moisture. Si improves physical, chemical and biological properties of soil.

Role of Silicon in Rice Rice is a high silicon accumulating plant and the plant is benefited from Si nutrition. Rice crop can uptake Si in the range of 230-470 kg ha-1. Si is a beneficial element for plant growth and is agronomically essential for improving and sustaining rice productivity. Besides rice yield increase, Si has many fold advantages of increasing nutrient availability (N, P, K, Ca, Mg, S, Zn), decreases nutrient toxicity (Fe, P, Al) and minimizing biotic and abiotic stress in plants.

Hence, the application of Si to soil or plant is practically useful in laterite derived paddy soils, not only to increase yield but also to alleviate the Fe toxicity problems.

Si increases the mechanical strength of the culm, thus reducing crop lodging. In soil, Si is not a much mobile element to plants. Therefore, a continued supply of this element would be required particularly for the healthy and productive development of plant during all growth stages.

Beneficial effects of silicon in rice Decreases Lodging Si in rice shoots enhanced the thickness of the culm wall and the size of the vascular bundles that result in reduction in lodging. Thickening of the cell walls of the sclerenchyma tissue in the culm and/or shortening and thickening of internodes or increase in Si content of the lower internodes provides mechanical strength to enable the plant to resist lodging.Increases crop growth and yield Si promotes growth, strengthens culms, and favors early panicle formation, increases the number of spikelets per panicle and percentage of matured rice grains and helps to maintain erect leaves which are important 72 | DECEMBER 2019

for higher rate of photosynthesis. Si plays an important role in hull formation in rice, and, in turn, seems to influence grain quality. Application of Si fertilizers will enhance the growth parameters, increases the yield, yield attributes and quality of rice crop.

Improves availability of applied nutrients.

Nitrogen Nitrogen Fertilizing with nitrogen tends to make rice leaves droopy, whereas silicon keeps them erect. By adopting proper silicon management, erect leaves can easily account for a 10 % increase in the photosynthesis by crop. Therefore, the maintenance of erect leaves by proper silicon fertilization for higher photosynthetic efficiency becomes more important when rice is grown with liberal applications of nitrogenous fertilizers in lowland rice fields having highly weathered tropical soils.

Phosphorus The application of calcium silicate to highly weathered soils enhanced upland rice response to applied phosphate. The overall beneficial effect of Si may be attributed to a higher P: Mn ratio in the shoot due to the decreased manganese and iron uptake, and thus indirectly improved phosphorus utilization within the rice plants.

Potassium Silicification of cell walls seems to be linked with potassium nutrition. Potassium deficiency reduces the accumulation of silicon in the epidermal cells of the leaf blades, thus increasing the susceptibility of the plant to rice blast. Therefore, silicon management integrated with potassium may be more important for sustaining rice yields in upland areas than in lowland areas.

Decrease metal toxicities of Fe and Al Iron toxicity In humid tropical and subtropical area, iron toxicity is one of the major physiological problems in rice growth. Silicon increases the oxidizing power of roots, which converts ferrous iron into ferric iron, thereby preventing a large uptake of iron and limiting its toxicity. Silicon will regulate Fe uptake from acidic soils through the release of OH- by roots.

Aluminium toxicity Si application alleviates aluminium toxicity by www.krishijagran.com

Nutrition

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

DECEMBER 2019 | 73

Nutrition

AGRICULTURE WORLD

creating inert aluminosilicates, stimulating phenolic exudation by roots or by sequestration in phytoliths. Increases abiotic stress tolerance Alleviate salt stress Excessive salinity in cropping soil is a worldwide problem due mainly to rising water tables. Si may alleviate salt stress in higher plants either by improved photosynthetic activity, enhanced K/Na selectivity ratio, increased enzyme activity, and increased concentration of soluble substances in the xylem. Si fertilizer application can also alleviate the adverse effects of salt stress on plants by increasing cell membrane integrity and stability through its ability to stimulate the plantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s antioxidant system Alleviate Drought stress The deposition of Si in the culms, leaves, and hulls also decrease transpiration from the cuticle thus increasing resistance to drought stress.

Drought stressed plants that were treated with Si fertilizer retained greater stomatal conductance, relative water content, and water potential than untreated plants. Si increased resistance to strong winds generated by typhoons, related to the increased rigidity of the shoots through silicification Increases biotic stress tolerance Pest tolerance Si increases the resistance of plants to many insects in rice like stem borer, leaf folder, brown plant hopper, etc. The deposition of silica on epidermal layers offers a physical barrier to insects by preventing the physical penetration by insects. Sucking and leaf eating caterpillars have a low preference for the silicified tissues than low silica containing succulent parts.

Soluble silicic acid (as low as 0.01 mg/ml) in the sap of the rice plant acts as an inhibitor of the sucking activity of the brown plant hopper. Si increases the resistance of plants to many insects in rice like stem borer, leaf folder, brown plant hopper, etc Disease tolerance Si has been found to decrease several diseases in

rice like sheath blight, brown spot, grain discoloration, etc. Si might form complexes with the organic compounds of cell walls of epidermal cells, thus increasing their resistance to the enzymes expounded by the pathogen. The antifungal compounds like momilactones were found to accumulate in Si treated rice plants and these acted against blast pathogen.

Silicon Deficiency Si deficiency makes the rice plants susceptible to pests and diseases. Si deficiency is common in areas with poor soil fertility, and in highly weathered soils. Its deficiency also seen in organic soils with less Si reserves and also occurs in highly weathered soils. The critical level of Si in soil is 40 mg kg-1 and the critical level of Si in rice (leaf and straw) is 5%. Si deficiency leads to soft and droopy leaves, reduced photosynthetic activity, reduced grain yields, increased insect pest incidence, reduced number of panicles and filled spikelets per panicle.

Silicon Fertilizers Calcium silicate, fine silica and sodium silicate, are mostly used silicon fertilizers. Potassium silicate, though expensive, is highly soluble and can be used in hydroponic culture and also applied through foliage.

Rice husk, rice husk ash and straw are organic sources of Si. Rice straw hauled away from rice fields are used for various purposes, such as animal feed, biogas production, or mushroom cultivation, may maintain its nutrient value as a source of Si; thus the end products of these uses should be recycled. Si content in rice straw and rice husk ranges from 4-20% and 9-26% respectively. Silicon solubilising bacteria (SSB) is a bio-fertilizer which contains spores of the Bacillus mucilaginosus. It is used as an effective soil inoculant. It solubilizes silica and provides the plant with strength to tolerate biotic and abiotic stresses and improves its resistance to pest and disease attack. With the changes occurring in the global environment, the role of Silica will become more and more important for better and sustainable production of the crop.

Conclusion Rice is a silicon accumulator, so adequate attention should be given to silicon nutrition. Highly weathered soils of the tropics and subtropics are low in available Silicon. Silicon management agenda includes silicon fertilization and recycling of silicon in rice crop residues. Silicon has manifold advantages.

It is essential for healthy growth and productive development of the rice crop. Silicon increases the efficiency of applied nutrients, increases crop yield, increases resistance against lodging, biotic stresses, and abiotic stresses. Silicon management is essential for sustaining rice productivity in temperate, tropical, and subtropical soils.

74 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 75

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Climate

Climate-Resilience Farming in Saline-affected regions of Haryana, India Building Small Farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Capacities Pawan Kumar S M Sehgal Foundation.

Gurugram, Haryana. India

76 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 77

Climate

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Introduction Salinity in soil and water is one of the major constraints in sustainable food production in many parts of the world, affecting 20% of cultivated land and 33% of irrigated land. [ Pooja Shrivastava and Rajesh Kumar. Soil salinity: A serious environmental issue and plant growth promoting bacteria as one of the tools for its alleviation. Saudi J Biol Sci. 2015 Mar; 22(2): 123–131. Published online 2014 Dec 9. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2014.12.001.]

Furthermore, salinized areas are increasing at the rate of 10% annually for various reasons such as low precipitation, high surface evaporation, saline water irrigation, and poor cultural practices.[ Jamil A., S. Riaz, M. Ashraf, and M. R. Foolad. Gene expression profiling of plants under salt stress. Crit. Rev. Plant Sci. 2011; 30(5):435–458.] In India alone, the area under salt-affected soils is about 6.73 million ha.

Together the states of Gujarat (2.23 m ha), Uttar Pradesh (1.37 m ha), Maharashtra (0.61 m ha), West Bengal (0.44 m ha), Haryana (.233 m ha), and Rajasthan (0.38 m ha) account for almost 75% of saline and sodic soils in the country.

Barman1, Journal of Soil Salinity and Water Quality 8(2), 144–152, 2016.] To feed the burgeoning population of the country, these soils need to be reclaimed and brought under productive cultivation.

The Adaptive Technologies-Agriculture program of S M Sehgal Foundation identifies innovative agricultural practices suitable to local agro-climatic conditions. The program promotes saline agriculture, builds small farmers’ resilience to climate change, and improves farm productivity in salt-affected farmland.

Study Conducted With the objective to analyze the effect of saline water irrigation on yields of salt-tolerant crops, the study was conducted in three blocks[ Block is a district subdivision for the purpose of Rural Development Department and panchayati raj institutes.] of Nuh district,[ A district (zila) is an administrative division of an Indian state or territory.] engaging 78 farmers from 13 saltaffected villages. The farmers who have saline soil and saline water sources for irrigation were selected for the study.

The states of Rajasthan, Haryana, and Punjab, in the northwestern arid part of the country, suffer greatly from the problem of marginal quality waters.[ D K Singh and Anshuman Singh. Salinity Research in India Achievements, Challenges and Future Prospects. ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana.] The present area under salt-affected soils (6.73 million ha) in the country is estimated to almost triple to 20 million ha by 2050. And 32 to 84% of the groundwater in different Indian states is already rated either saline or alkali.

[P. S. Minhas. Saline water management for irrigation in India, Agricultural Water Management, Volume 30, Issue 1, March 1996, Pages 1–24.] The problem of poor quality water will significantly increase in the near future with the planned expansion in irrigated areas and intensive use of natural resources.

Salt-tolerant varieties of cereal, vegetable, and oil crops were given to 78 selected farmers. Variety KRL 10 for wheat (cereal), Saki F1 for broccoli Indum, Ruby Queen for beetroot (vegetables), and CS 58 for mustard (oil crop) were selected for demonstrations on the farmers’ fields. The area for demonstration varied from 0.4 acre to 1 acre, as only one-acre[ Acre is a unit of land that is 4,047 m2.] plots were considered for this study.

Economic losses due to salinity are likely to increase manifold with a projected increase in salt-affected soils. India’s population is increasing at 1.7% per year, but the net cultivable area is almost constant.[ Salt-affected Soils of Rewari District, Haryana: Distribution and Characteristics Ashim Datta1*, Madhurama Sethi1, Nirmalendu Basak1, Anil Kumar Yadav2, Anil R. Chinchmalatpure3, M. L. Khurana4 and Arijit

Farm support such as trainings on a crop-specific package of practices; field preparation, seed sowing methods, fertilizer applications, diseases and pest management, and harvesting were provided to all the farmers.

78 | DECEMBER 2019

In order to assess the salinity level, soil and water samples were collected from each farmer’s field before planting the crops. Two water samples were collected during the crop season. Direct seed sowing was done for wheat, mustard, and beetroot in the months of October and November, whereas broccoli seedlings were transplanted in September.

A data analysis of water and soil from the demonstrated plots showed that the minimum and maximum salinity of water used for irrigawww.krishijagran.com

Climate

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

DECEMBER 2019 | 79

Climate

AGRICULTURE WORLD

tion varied from 0.97 to 4.158 for broccoli, 2.178 to 6.922 for beetroot, 0.97 to 7.946 for mustard, and 2.882 to 7.946 for wheat. Soil EC varied from 0.15 to 4.29 dS/m, with pH between 6.5 to 8.8.

and STM (CS58) gave higher results per acre of 6.20% (INR 2431) and 7.53% (INR 2847) respectively compared to local salt-intolerant varieties.

Conclusions

An economic viability analysis was done calculating the gross benefits for each crop. A comparative benefit analysis of broccoli and beetroot was done with salt-tolerant wheat (STW) and salt-tolerant mustard (STM). Similarly, the gross benefits received from STW and STM were compared with salt-intolerant wheat (SITW) and mustard (SITM). All four crops are grown in winter season; therefore the comparative study helps farmers make decisions on the selection of crops and area under each crop.

Results and Discussions The results showed an inverse relationship between water salinity and the yield of the crops.

With an increase in water salinity, the yield was reduced, though no set trend was observed between salinity and yield. Figures below show impacts of saline water irrigation on the yields of different crops.

It is observed that salinity has an inverse relationship with yields of the crops. The yield of the crop decreases with an increase in salinity.

Among the four crops, broccoli is most sensitive to salinity, and the yield reduces up to 1.81 MT/ acre with an increase of 3.19 dS/m water salinity; whereas wheat is the least affected with salinity, wherein the yield is decreased only 0.81 MT/ acre with an increase in salinity from 2.88 to 7.94. Wheat crops are more salt tolerant than mustard because wheat requires 5â&#x20AC;&#x201C;6 irrigations, whereas mustard needs one to two irrigations.

In terms of economic benefit of the crops, broccoli is found to be more profitable than other crops and provides the highest income of INR 107,292 per acre compared with INR 72,400, INR 41,634, and INR 40,646 received respectively from beetroot, mustard, and wheat.

Moreover, the broccoli crop also resulted in higher returns of 61.83% (INR 66,342) and 62.16% (INR 66,692) over STW and STM respectively; whereas beetroot resulted in 43.44% (INR 31,450) and 43.92% (INR 31,800) higher returns per acre against STW and STM. A similar comparative study done between STW and STM with local salt-intolerant varieties of wheat and mustard showed that STW (KRL10) 80 | DECEMBER 2019

Broccoli and beetroot are more profitable crops to be grown in saline water between 2.178 to 6.92 dS/m salinity, whereas wheat and mustard are well adopted to high salinity and can withstand up to salinity of 7.946 dS/m. The germination of STW and STM are higher than SITW and SITM, which helps farmers use appropriate seed rates.

Results of the soil test taken before and after crop cultivation showed no significant change in soil EC. The reason was that farmers have been using saline water for many years, and soil salinity is neutralized after monsoon rain. Due to high permeability and poor water-holding capacity, salt deposits are leached down through the rainwater and do not negatively impact the soil quality.

Greater income from broccoli, beetroot, and salt-tolerant varieties has increased farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; confidence in cultivating salt-tolerant crops; the high germination rate of salt-tolerant wheat and mustard reduces the seed rate and the cost of cultivation; and the use of local groundwater for irrigation reduces the cost of irrigation without adversely impacting soil chemical properties, all of which will help in better adoption rates going forward.

To benefit the larger community, Sehgal Foundation will continue to provide extension services to farmers of salt-affected villages and motivate them to shift from low-input intensive crops to high-value salt-tolerant crops and harvest better return using saline water. It is expected that the increased use of saline water in agriculture will stop saline groundwater encroachment toward freshwater pockets.

The effective use of saline water will reduce the water pumping cost as well as create huge potential for small farmers, particularly those without access to freshwater. In the long term, with the adoption of salt-tolerant crops and varieties, farmers will able to fetch more income thereby helping them come out of the vicious cycle of extreme poverty.

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

Agriculture

Thumboor Paddy Collective Farmers in Dilemma ~ Dr. Lakshmi Unnithan

T

he panchayat should withdraw from the impasse of closing the bund which will inturn result in drowning 100 acres of Kannukettichira Vazhikkilichira Eruppo Padasehkaram,Thumboor,Kerala,India

work to close the bund, which will eventually lead to the destruction of crops in 100 acres of Kannukettichira Vazhikkilichira Eruppo Padasehkara Samithi, which is preparing for the harvest in December.

Isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t too hard to believe for the poor farmers to wake up and see their painstaking efforts in feeding the world lose out to some fault in systems.This is at a point when doubling the farmers' income by 2022-23 is central to promote farmers' welfare, reduce agrarian distress and bring parity between income of farmers and those working in non-agricultural professions.

Farmers along with their leader Vaxerine Perappadan who had always spoken for farmers rights and whose encouragement and guidance boosted this community to become profitable (Loktantrikyuva Janata Dal,Zilla President) have requested the Panchayat officials not to close the bund on Perunthode, which brings water from the Kottanellur branch canal to the Vazhikkalachira paddy fields before the harvest.

100 acres of Paddy Fields are under severe threat in Thumboor a small Village in Vellangallur Block, Vellokkara Panchayath in Thrissur District of Kerala State.

The Velukkara Panchayat authorities need to urgently withdraw from the preparatory www.krishijagran.com

The current season of paddy cultivation is from August to December and the bund is closed only after the harvest to collect water in the paddy field. This ensures the water table in the near by areas and ensures water for the Puncha cultivation in the nearby paddy fields.

DECEMBER 2019 | 81

AGRICULTURE WORLD

82 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com

AGRICULTURE WORLD

www.krishijagran.com

DECEMBER 2019 | 83

AGRICULTURE WORLD

84 | DECEMBER 2019

www.krishijagran.com