Chemical Fertilizers and its Indiscriminate Use

written by iasexam.com | 22/10/2022
Chemical Fertilizers and its Indiscriminate Use

Context – Reducing the use of chemical pesticides has long been a national priority given the genetic modification of the human body and the prime loss of biodiversity.

There have been several harmful effects of soil environment, ground and surface water due to the indiscriminate and continuous use of chemical pesticides thereby reducing the productivity of soil and affecting its health in terms of physical, chemical and biological properties.

About Chemical Fertilizers

  • Chemical Fertilizers or Pesticides are those substances that provide the chemicals required for the plant growth. It can be both organic or inorganic. There are mixed fertilizers as well which are a combination of three major nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.
  • The severe consequences of the misuse of fertilizers include:
  1. The excessive use of these fertilizers kills all the microorganisms available naturally in the soil and which are highly essential for maintaining the soil health. 
  2. The fertilizer runoff causes water pollution on a large scale whose sphere of impact extends far beyond the farmer and the fields. These chemicals easily get washed away by water and cause pollution. 
  3. The chemical fertilizers also lead to the release of harmful greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere while also causing the eutrophication of our present waterways. 
  4. The chances and cases of disturbances caused to the kidney, lungs, liver etc completely depends on the amount of fertilizers consumed.

Status of Fertilizer Usage in India

  • Phosphate based fertilizers, nitrogenous fertilizers and other complex fertilizers are the main products manufactured by the Fertilizer industry in India. The standard ratio of N:P:K  should ideally stand at 4:2:1 but at present the ratio is 8:2:3:2:1 i.e. the overuse of fertilizers has ultimately led to numerous ecological problems.
  • It is estimated that the Indian states of Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Haryana use more than 200 Kg/hectare chemical fertilizers in their farm lands while the Northeastern states use less than 10 Kg/hectare.
  • A major portion of urea meant for agricultural usage is diverted for industrial use via the black market which forces almost 65% of the farmers in states like Uttar Pradesh to buy urea from the black market.

Reasons behind Misuse of Fertilizers

  • There remains an evident lack of knowledge leading to indiscriminate use of fertilizers and pesticides in hope of better produce. 
  • In countries like India, the shopkeepers usually sell farm chemical inputs from multiple different companies and the business model involves rewarding the shopkeepers with higher margins for increasing sales. As a result, the shopkeepers tend to provoke the farmers to buy such chemicals which is not even a necessity.
  • Majority of individual farmers in India can barely afford good quality and precise spraying equipment for their farm lands leading to wrong application and excessive usage.
  • The transparency and accountability of such usage remains inhibited in India due to lack of real-time quality data, inadvertently making the reduction in use of chemical fertilizers difficult.
  • The basic government policy for fertilizers in India states regulators should be independent. But it is seen in the case of agricultural chemical inputs that the same authorities and apartments which advocate their usage, are also the ones that regulate the whole fertilizer trade.

Measures to be Taken

  • Adopting Service Oriented Business Model – The current business model of the chemical fertilizer and other input industry should be transformed into a service industry. 
  • Precision Spraying Equipment – As individuals cannot afford the cost of precision equipment, assistance should be provided in availing them with the same.
  • Better Advisory and Awareness –  For better targeted farm advisory and grievance redressal, the farming infrastructure should be developed in the country. Furthermore, awareness and knowledge centers need to be developed to cater to this issue.
  • Regulated Sale – A framework should be developed under which all the farmers report each of their farm chemical sales to the government in real-time. Whereas there is also a need to shift our focus towards bio-fertilizers which are comparatively cheap, renewable and eco-friendly to supplement the plant growth.
  • Improve Fertilizer Efficiency – The country should focus on improving the available fertilizer efficiency through a need-based use rather than broadcasting the fertilizers in the farm lands.

Conclusion

In the past many decades, agricultural development has primarily focused on the short term gains in productivity and profitability. This has led to severe damage to soil fertility, health and environment. The need of the hour is to understand the issues and challenges to find alternatives that can sustain the environment and feed the growing population.