Causes of soil health deterioration

Causes of soil health deterioration


1. Imbalanced fertilization
2. Deletion in Soil organic Matter (SOM)
3. Intensive cereal-cereal cropping system
4. Use of land not as per the land suitability classification
5. Multinutrient deficiency
6. Lack of soil testing facilities
7. Soil Test Crop Response Correlation (STCR)approach
8. Improper method of compost preparation
9. Dumping of industrial effluents

Imbalanced fertilization-

Fertilization is important for crop nourishment. Balanced NPK ratio is 4:2:1 but in most cases there is a wide variation especially in the states of Punjab and Haryana

Soil Test Crop Response Correlation (STCR)approach-

There is a STCR based recommendation for major crop  varieties developed in different agro climatic condition but this recommendation in most cases does not reach the farmers.

 

Status of shops

14 Shopes located in Distt Dhamtari are not performing even average, the main reason being not proper shop manager,weakness or less leadership quality of area manager and neglect by mgt for area being double crop and highly sales potential area.

Whereas Distt Rajnandgaon ,Khairagarh block 5 shops were doing excellent despite mgt prediction of low potential area.

Soil testing

Soil test based fertilizers recommendation


Soil test based fertilizers recommendation is important for balanced nutrition .At present there are 686 Soil Testing Laboratories (STL) in India with analyzing capacity of 7.21 m soil samples. Out of these 647 STL are run by state govt. 39 by fertilizers industries and 20 by State Agriculture University (SAU) and ICAR. But these numbers cannot cope with the growing need.


Reasons for soil testing not successful in India  -
1. Error in sampling
2. Difficulties in proper procedural estimation
3. Improper interpretation of results

Soil and water testing kits

It is practically not possible to establish STL in each and every village and blocks. Now a days Soil and testing kits are available which can analyze Ph ,EC ,organic carbon, P,K,N,S along with some micronutrients. In some kit lime and Gypsum requirement calculation provision are there.  These kits are low cost (Rs 2500 - 5000) and are available in the market. These kits are having enormous potentialities to reach each and every field of farmers.

Digital soil testing kits

It has recently been developed which can analyze N ,P, K, S, Zn and B and give fertilizers recommendation just by moving the knobs. It is simple ,easy to operate and low cost.

Launching of agri solution clinic

I am going ahead with the launching of 35 agri solution clinic  in my state with brand name Aadhar... Krishi Samadhan and slogan -"A dream of developed rural india".13 retail shops have already started running. 

Better agricultural practices for sustainable agriculture

In India Green Revolution in agriculture has a significant contribution on aggregate supply of food grains, ensuring food security to the growing population, however the momentum gained during the green revolution has slowly declined. Now better agriculture practices are needed to bring sustainability in agriculture.

Better agricultural practices are those which are safe to the environment, human beings and all other living beings on earth and simultaneously increasing agriculture production.

In India better agricultural practices were part of our farming in traditional agriculture.

Need for better agriculture practices arises from the reports  of adverse effects of chemical pesticide on human beings from Punjab  , Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and other parts of country where excessive use in some pockets have led to incidence of cancer and other diseases. Recent example of pesticide toxicity is of Endosulphon in Kerala and Karnataka where Hon'ble Supreme Court has to intervene to stop its sale.

Simultaneously indiscriminate use of fertilizer  particularly the nitrogenous has led to substantial pollution of soil, air and water .

Scope for better agriculture practices  is vast for adoption and promotion. Organic  farming recommends the use of such agricultural practices which are biological in nature and eco friendly. Organic farming relies heavily on Biopesticide and biofertiliser.The current global market for organically raised agricultural products is valued at around 30 billion US $ with a growth rate of 8%. Biopesticide represents only 2.89% (as on 2005) of the overall pesticide market in India and is expected  an annual growth rate of about 2.3% in the coming  years .In India so far only 12 type of biopesticides have been registered under the Insecticide Act of 1968. Whereas more than 190 synthetics are registered for use in chemical pesticides.

India has 18 millions of Neem tree and if full potential of tree is harnessed than it can meet the total requirement of pesticides in Indian agriculture.

Running of outlets

All of 34 outlets have started running.

The scheme for cold chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure

The scheme for cold chain, Value Addition and Preservation Infrastructure intends to address the shortage of cold storage capacity. Huge gap of 9 to 10 million tons of cold storage capacity was identified in the country by the Task Force on Cold Chains.

Employment and self employment sector

I am bit nervous about leaving traditional employment sector to business sector,but it is long decided and i am definitely going ahead for self employed sector.I am feeling happy doing this ."Cashfow quadrant" is indeed a great book to be read.

Checking rural migration

In India  69 percent of population lives in 6.40  lakhs villages. The share of agriculture in national GDP has come down to 14 % in spite of the fact that 66% of rural male and 82% of rural female are engaged in agriculture as cultivators or labourers.

Loss of job opportunities in agriculture is the primary factor for driving people away from agriculture. Agrarian crises can be gauged from the fact that almost 240000 debt ridden farmers committed suicide between 1995 and 2009.There is an urgent need to strengthen agriculture for slow down of rural to urban migration as well as on-farm and off-farm rural employment to fight rural poverty

Agriculture in India uses 52% of work force but contributes only 14% to the GDP. Agriculture is the main support  base of our economy therefore it is needed to make it more productive, so that more employment opportunities  are created.

There is enormous scope for raising the productivity of Indian agriculture, doubling crop yields and farm incomes and thereby generating significant growth in demand for farm labour

Food processing can reduce huge losses Rs 55000 Crores in food grains, fruits and vegetables. Value addition can be done in food grains, fruits ,vegetables, dairy products, meat ,poultry, fish and medicinal and aromatic plants

Tourism in India contributes 6.23% of the national GDP and 8.78% of total employment in the country. Agri-tourism can help in generating more jobs in rural areas  and which in turn will reduce rural migration. In  Maharashtra  people in rural area have formed MART (Maharashtra state Agri & Rural Tourism ). In Gujarat Hudka is successful venture.

Promotion of agri tourism needs conceptual convergence with rural tourism, eco tourism, health tourism and adventure tourism.

Tourism in rural areas can only furnish if rural infrastructure in the form of roads ,communication and health is created.

Need for indigenous seeds

India for several years have been synonymous  to agriculture which is evident from the fact that 60% of its population is still engaged in agriculture and Agri related activities , earlier farmers used to rely on traditional style of farming. Kathia,Jalalia, Mundi Pissi, Red Pissi, White Pissi, Bansi, Bangasia,and Soharia were the available local (Desi) wheat seeds while kardhana ,Jheena, Bagh moonch, Kali moonch,Batro,Kshatri,Lalai, Bhadel etc were the local paddy seeds. Similarly there were different types of Sorghum,Chana,Lentils,Green Lentils and Corn seeds were available in the market.

 With the advent of Green revolution, India adapted new advanced method to become self sufficient in food production after Bengal famine. High Yielding Varieties (HYV) of seeds and increase use of fertilizer and irrigation were introduced in several districts of India.For many years these hybrid seeds produced great yield but now the situation has changed, despite nurturing the land with quantity of fertilizers, the production rate is suffering huge downfall.

Earlier farmers used to sow local seeds from which he used to save some grains from the crop for next sowing season or borrowed some from his neighboring farmers. Women used to store and preserve the seeds. In comparison to indigenous seeds which were free now farmers have to pay for the cross-breed seeds and have become dependent on the companies and the govt agencies.