Sir,
Apropos “Will Government ban chemical fertilizers” by Dr R M Bhatt (DE 14/12.2016) has theoretically expressed due concerns about usage of two important chemical inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides in modern agriculture productivity. Organic agriculture in principle if followed is sure to help soil and environmental health. To switch over from present day chemical input based agriculture to purely organic agriculture is not so easy a job because it involves rural based economy and farming community. The benefits that have been achieved by usage of chemicals in boosting agricultural output per unit area are well known. Even green revolution that brought prosperity to farming is chemical based. Overall prosperity has been due to the introduction of modern agricultural technology based on agricultural research.
Before the invent of chemical fertilizers and pesticides for increasing agricultural productivity, all our indigenous farming systems were organic in nature enough to sustain the population levels prevalent at that time, but ,the chemical inputs together with varietal improvement and irrigation facilities have decidedly helped us in fighting hunger among growing population. Benefits of organic agriculture are well established and need of the hour is to get more and more crop area especially vegetables under the program. This transition to organic agriculture is quite visible in Sikkim, Assam tea gardens and many south Indian states which is crop specific. We need to balance between modern and organic based agriculture by judicious use of inputs like following the recommendations based on soil heath card scheme launched by Government and the crop management schedules issued by Agricultural Universities from time to time that are crop specific .
Yours etc……..
Prof. (Dr.) B L Puttoo,
Jammu/Pune
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