(a) whether fertility and production of cultivable land is declining due to use of chemical fertilizers in the country;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government proposes to boost organic agriculture in the country;
(d) if so, the details thereof along with the amount allocated for this purpose; and
(e) the role of agriculture universities to boost use of organic fertilizer in the country?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
‡ãðŠãäÓã ??? ????? ?????? ½ãâ¨ããÊã¾ã ½ãñâ À㕾㠽ãâ¨ããè ( SHRI PARSHOTTAM RUPALA)
(a) & (b): There is no decline in soil fertility and productivity with balanced and judicious use of chemical fertilizers. However, imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers coupled with low addition of organic matter over years may cause multinutrient deficiencies as evident from the study conducted by ICAR under All India Coordinated Research Project on ‘Long-Term Fertilizer Experiments’ in different soil types (fixed locations) under dominant cropping systems.
(c) & (d): Government is promoting organic farming in the country through the schemes of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) and Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture.
Contd….2/-
-2-
Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY) is newly launched scheme to develop 10,000 organic clusters of 20 hectare each so as to cover certified area by 2 lakh hectare during 3 years. Organic Farming is promoted in such areas like hilly, tribal and also rainfed areas where utilization of chemical fertilizers and pesticide is less and in a cluster, a minimum of 65% farmers should belong to the small and marginal categories. Allocation under the scheme for the year 2016-17 is Rs. 165.96 crore against which 151.49 crore released to States.
Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region (MOVCDNER) has been launched for implementation in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura during 2015-16 to 2017-18. The scheme aims at development of certified organic production in a value chain mode to link growers with consumers and to support the development of entire value chain starting from inputs, seeds, certification, to the creation of facilities for collection, aggregation, processing, marketing and brand building initiative. The scheme was approved for three years.
An amount of Rs. 158.87 crore was allocated to the North Eastern states during 2015-16 and Rs. 100 crore for the year 2016-17. During 2015-16 a sum of Rs. 112.11 crore and during 2016-17, Rs. 31.02 crore have been released to States.
(e): The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under Network project on Soil Biodiversity-Biofertilizers with cooperating centres located in various State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) has developed improved and efficient strains of biofertilizers specific to different crops and soil types. Liquid Biofertilizer technology with higher shelf-life has also been developed. Besides, the ICAR and SAUs have developed technology to prepare various types of organic manures such as phosphocompost, vermicompost, bio-enriched compost, municipal solid waste compost, etc. from various organic wastes.
The ICAR imparts training, organizes Front Line Demonstrations (FLDs) to educate farmers on all these aspects.
******