Context:
Fertiliser subsidy is causing a skewed nutrient profile. This must be addressed for farm productivity and human health.
Answer:
Fertilisers play a critical role in ensuring food security, with India being a leading global exporter of agricultural products. However, imbalanced fertiliser use, dominated by nitrogenous fertilisers, has caused significant harm to soil health and agricultural productivity.
Reasons for Imbalanced Use of Fertilisers:
- Fertiliser Subsidy Policies: Urea is heavily subsidised, priced significantly lower than other fertilisers like DAP and MOP.
- Urea’s price has remained at ₹5,628/tonne since 2012, while DAP is priced at ₹27,000/tonne.
- Skewed Price Hierarchy: High pricing of potash and micronutrients discourages their use, leading to an overreliance on urea and DAP.
- States like Punjab use 61% more nitrogen but 89% less potash and 8% less phosphorus.
- Supply-Side Constraints: Limited availability of phosphatic and potassic fertilizers due to reliance on imports exacerbates the imbalance.
- India imports nearly 90% of its potash needs.
- Lack of Awareness Among Farmers: Farmers equate greenery from nitrogen application with productivity, ignoring the need for balanced nutrients.
- Inefficiencies in Nutrient Use: Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) for nitrogen is only 30-40%, with the excess contributing to environmental pollution.
- Adulteration: of fertilisers like Single Super Phosphate (SSP) and poor-quality control deter farmers from using alternatives.
- Soil Testing Inefficiencies: Poor implementation of the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme means farmers lack access to accurate nutrient recommendations.
Implications of Imbalanced Use of Fertilisers:
- Soil Health Degradation: Excess nitrogen leads to soil acidification and loss of organic carbon, reducing soil fertility.
- ICAR studies reveal long-term nutrient imbalances reduce soil biological activity.
- Reduced Crop Productivity: Excess nitrogen leads to poor grain yields despite lush greenery in crops.
- Rice and wheat productivity in the Green Revolution belt of Punjab and Haryana is plateauing.
- Environmental Damage: Excess nitrogen contributes to groundwater nitrate contamination and greenhouse gas emissions.
- Nitrous oxide is 273 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.
- Financial Burden: Fertiliser subsidies cost ₹1.88 lakh crore annually, nearly 4% of the Union budget.
- Inefficient fertilizer use raises input costs without proportional productivity gains.
- Impact on Farmer Profits: Suboptimal nutrient application affects yield quality and quantity, reducing profitability.
- Low potash use results in weaker plant resistance to stress and diseases.
- Human Health Risks: High nitrate levels in groundwater, due to fertiliser leaching, pose health risks such as methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome).
- Cases of nitrate contamination have been reported in Punjab.
Policy Measures Needed to Address Imbalanced Use of Fertilisers:
- Promotion of Balanced Nutrient Use: Implement site-specific nutrient management systems.
- The Soil Health Card Scheme provides crop and region-specific fertilizer recommendations.
- Reforming Subsidy Policies: Shift from product-based subsidies to direct benefit transfers (DBT) for fertilizers, ensuring balanced pricing of N, P, and K. Deregulate fertilizer pricing to encourage market-driven efficiencies.
- Encourage the use of Single Super Phosphate (SSP) and complex fertilizers.
- Research and Development: Develop and promote slow-release fertilizers and nitrification inhibitors to enhance nutrient use efficiency.
- Neem-coated urea has improved nitrogen use efficiency by 10-15%.
- Promoting Alternatives: Promote bio-fertilisers, organic manure, and nano-fertilisers to reduce dependency on chemical inputs.
- PM-PRANAM aims to reduce urea and DAP usage by promoting organic fertilizers.
- Strengthening Awareness Campaigns: Educate farmers on balanced nutrient use, including secondary and micronutrients.
- ICAR recommends 4R principles: Right fertilizer, Right rate, Right time, Right place.
- Addressing Supply Chain Issues: Improve domestic production of phosphatic and potassic fertilisers to reduce dependence on imports.
- Investments in fertilizer manufacturing under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
- Leveraging Technology: Use AI and IoT to monitor fertilizer application and soil health in real-time.
- The AI4AI programme in Telangana improved chilli yields by 21% while reducing fertilizer use.
Balanced nutrient management must become the cornerstone of agricultural practices to ensure soil health, sustainable productivity, and environmental protection. With targeted policy measures and awareness, India can achieve the twin goals of enhancing agricultural productivity and preserving soil health for future generations.
‘+1’ Value Addition:
- As per ICAR, less than 5% of Indian soils have high or sufficient nitrogen, only 40% have sufficient phosphate, 32% have sufficient potash and just 20% are sufficient in organic carbon.
- Our soils also suffer from a deficiency of micronutrients like sulphur, iron, zinc, boron, etc.
- The NBS scheme, introduced in 2010, favours nitrogen and phosphorus over potassium and sulphur.
- Telangana is overusing N by 54% but 82% less K, and 13% less P.
- ‘One Nation, One Fertilizer’ scheme: Under the scheme, all fertiliser companies, State Trading Entities (STEs) and Fertiliser Marketing Entities (FMEs) will be required to use a single “Bharat” brand for fertilisers and logo.
