Fields of Gold: Green Revolution Must Get Greener To Cut Costs, Increase Yield Of Crops

Sustainable Agriculture, without the use of
chemicals, seems the only way forward

Everything comes full circle, and so have techniques in the agricultural sector. There was a time when farmers had gradually shifted from using natural or organic manure to spraying chemical-laden pesticides, broadcasting urea, deep placement of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and potash liberally on crops in their fields. But with organic foodgrains gaining more popularity in the past few years, usage of biomass, compost, cowdung, pressmud, etc has again picked up.

The Indian Government has also started the National Mission on Natural Farming (NMNF) to motivate farmers to adopt chemical-free farming and enhance the reach of natural farming. The Mission has been formulated as a separate and independent scheme from FY 2023-24 by upscaling the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP).

According to the government, the success of NMNF will require behavioural changes in farmers to shift from chemical-based inputs to cow-based locally produced manure. This will require continuous efforts in awareness, training, hand-holding and capacity building of farmers in the initial years. In this regard, a provision of Rs 459 crore for 2023-24 has been proposed in the budget.

Another downside of farmers using chemicals like urea, DAP, potash and pesticides is the burden shouldered by the Central Government in the form of subsidies given on fertilisers. The budget for fertiliser subsidy for 2023-24 has been kept at Rs 1,75,099 crore. The government foots a subsidy on these soil nutrients so that farmers, who are mostly marginal, do not have to bear high input costs as it will result in heavy losses to them.

While need-coated urea is sold at around Rs 590 per quintal to farmers, the price payable to domestic manufacturers and importers comes to about Rs 1,700 and Rs 2,300 per quintal, respectively. The per-tonne subsidy is currently Rs 10,231 for DAP and Rs 6,070 for potash.

Natural Farming relies on cattle dung and locally available resources, with no chemical fertilisers and pesticides, and gives freedom to farmers from externally purchased inputs. It is largely based on on-farm biomass recycling with major stress on mulching, using cowdung-urine formulation as pesticides and botanical concoctions for improving the natural nutrient cycling and increase in organic matter in the soil.

Organic farming is considered to be climate friendly and promotes low external input usage, recycling, reuse and reduced use of synthetics. The Indian Council of Agriculture Research under its All India Network Programme on Organic Farming has developed practices for organic production in cropping and farming systems.

Given that the input costs for farming have been increasing by leaps and bounds and the final crop yield is failing to match the investment given its vulnerability to extreme weather conditions, sustainable farming is fast becoming the next big thing to meet the challenges of sustaining domestic food production in the face of the changing climate.