The Hindu Business Line : The organic option

The unbalanced use of inorganic fertilisers, spurred by a lop-sided subsidy regime, has impacted the quality of farmland. It is time to explore the organic option seriously.

Rapidly rising fuel costs have pushed fertiliser prices up manifold in recent times. Higher input costs, when not accompanied by a commensurate increase in farm-gate prices, usually force farmers to compromise on the recommended level of input use. In our county, the problem is aggravated by the worrying skew in fertiliser consumption across States. The country’s per hectare fertiliser availability of 95 kg actually masks more than it reveals. While per hectare use in the highly irrigated frontline States of Punjab and Haryana is an estimated 140 kg/ha, in several others it is as low as 50 kg/ha. Importantly, fertiliser subsidy is becoming increasingly burdensome (close to Rs 1,00,000 crore and growing); and there is little to show by way of increased output or yield. In the last 10 years, the farm growth rate has averaged a meagre 2.2 per cent a year. Indeed, in Punjab and Haryana as also in western Uttar Pradesh, the growth rates of major field crops (mainly grains such as rice and wheat) have actually slowed considerably in recent years.

Together with grain mono-cropping, continued high-input intensive agriculture has resulted in deterioration of soil health and an alarming decline in the water table. The unbalanced use of inorganic fertilisers, spurred by a lop-sided subsidy regime, has impacted the quality of farmland. An ecological disaster may be waiting to happen in high-input regions. It is time to explore our nutrient options more seriously. Organic farming has so far been perceived as a peripheral activity, its produce meant for niche, high-end markets, both domestic and export. The policymakers’ indifference to this cost-effective (given the exorbitant energy costs) and eco-friendly sustainable practice is glaring.

Organic food is not merely good for the health, the soil and the environment, it is also beginning to make economic sense. Fortunately, a third of the country practises some kind of organic farming by default, being too poor to afford chemical fertilisers. It is this India that has the potential to go considerably more organic, if suitable policy support is ensured. The marketability of organic foods is improving rapidly with rise in personal incomes and changing lifestyles, especially in urban India. The crushing fertiliser subsidy burden can be eased somewhat if organic farming is encouraged in rain-fed areas. The production and distribution of bio-fertilisers and bio-pesticides deserve focussed policy support and call for investments in bio-input R&D. These ideas are not new. The 2005-06 Task Force report on “Balanced Use of Fertilisers’ also recommended “encouragement to use of organic manure, bio-fertilisers and NPK mixture fertilisers, and their judicious use with chemical fertilisers”.

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