Experts lay stress on need for soil nutrition, management

Amid rising requirement of foodgrains, agricultural scientists have expressed the need to have a balanced crop nutrition across the country, which will help in increasing the yield and reducing malnutrition.

In a conference on agriculture, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Wednesday, scientists said priority should be given in disseminating more information to farmers, enabling them to augment micronutrients in the soil apart from focsing on NPK fertilisers.

"Soil management is the need of the hour," said A G Durgude, soil scientist at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri. Subscribing to his view, D K Das of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, West Bengal, said, "Unless the nutrients level in the medium (soil) is balanced, crop will not have its total nourishment and, therefore, the final products (grains) lack essential nutrients leading to malnutrition."

Kishore P Patel, a scientist at Anand Agricultural University, said micronutrients (including zinc, sulphur,manganese,iron) are as important as the macronutrients. He added that with the use of micronutrients, apart from yield, quality of soil too would improve.

Concentration of fertiliser consumption in a few districts of the country is also a cause of concern. "There should be uniformity in the use of fertilisers across the country," said V Adinarayana, principal scientist, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad.

"About 102 districts in the country consume 50 per cent of the total fertilisers consumption in the country, with another 37 districts using about 25 per cent of the fertilisers," he said.

This meant less than 7 per cent of the districts consumed over 200 kg NPK fertilisers a hectare and 65 per cent of the districts consumed less than 100 kg a hectare, he added. By 2025, the country's population will rise to 1.4 billion and the foodgrains requirement will be around 301 million tonne.