Farmers want to give up fertilisers but need policy support

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal to farmers on May 10 to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers by 25%-50% had shades of his Independence Day speeches in 2019 and 2025, in which he had appealed for the judicious use of chemical fertilisers.

In this time, India’s chemical fertiliser use has increased 15%, from 61.4 million metric tonnes to 70.8 million metric tonnes.

The latest appeal is prompted by the economic impact of the war in West Asia – in the same speech, Modi appealed for the judicious use of fuel, which like chemical fertilisers, has ingredients majorly sourced from countries in the affected region. His previous appeals have been inspired by the harmful effect of the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilisers on soil.

In both instances, however, just appealing to farmers to reduce the use of chemical fertilisers without speaking of and facilitating the alternative isn’t enough to motivate a switch to natural farming. Reducing the use of chemical fertilisers in soil that is habituated to their use causes a significant drop in yield.

For the use of urea to reduce by 50% without jeopardising yield and food security, intelligent measures to improve soil health through biofertilisers, biodecomposers, organic manuring and soil conditioners, followed by the right rate, dose, time and method of application of...

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