I am delighted to be here today on the occasion of National Seminar on Fertilizers and Environment at the historic Science College Ballygunje Campus. The faculty and alumnus of this college have distinguished themselves in areas of research, especially in Bio sciences, and have impacted public policy on agriculture and health. The seminar today is being held in honour of late Professor NP Dutta of IARI and I join the organizers in paying my tribute to him.
The theme is extremely relevant as questions about the efficacy of our fertilizer policy are being raised – both from the economic rationale and the environmental impact side. Yet there are no easy solutions, and it is not a case of an either/or scenario. There can be no denial of the fact that India became self sufficient in food grains, and Green Revolution ushered in rural prosperity in several regions of the country , and a fair share of the credit has to be given to the fertilizer industry. However the challenge before all of us today is to understand and assess the long term impact of looking at fertilizers as a ‘silver bullet’ for all soils, all crops, and in all climes.
My Janma Bhumi is Punjab , and my Karma Bhumi is West Bengal. Both states are predominantly agrarian though the land holding patterns , agro climatic features, crop sequences, market infrastructure and capitalization in agriculture are quite different. However, the thread which links them together is the increasing use of GR technologies, especially fertilizers, to achieve higher yields, and the externalities thereof. Both states , especially Punjab have been (short term) beneficiaries of the administered price regime in fertilizers which ensured that fertilizer was available ‘ on tap’ for farmers. because it was cheap, and available aplenty, there was not just over application, but multi- application . Rather than look for holistic and science based solutions, the pseudoscience mentality of ‘more fertilizer: more crop’ gained currency because – and I hate to say this – Agriculture Departments found it easier to ensure supply of fertilizer to the farmer , rather than the more tedious, painstaking and difficult task of educating him about alternate cropping patterns, water use efficiency. Thus process driven approach was replaced by the mechanistic ‘input driven’ system which suited everyone’s interest.
The agriculture research establishment also failed us, because till very recently, the negative externalities of fertilizer application were not highlighted. At the political level, the contest was not of ideas, but of ensuring that particular regions or areas got more than their share of subsidized fertilizer.
Punjab was the front runner , the state closely identified with Green Revolution, prosperous farmers, young people doing the Bhangra at Baisakhi, the festival of harvest. It has been described as the granary of India, the cradle of hard working peasants and soldiers, and the entrepreneurial spirit of the Punjabi farmer has been held as an exemplar in many a conference and seminar. Farmers from across the country would undertake study visits to Punjab to see how the transformation of agriculture could take place within a matter of years and how production shout up five to seven times on account of the application of fertilizer and other GR practices.
West Bengal’s tryst with agriculture is also very interesting : over the last three decades the state has been able to achieve self sufficiency in rice production, its staple crop besides being the leading producer of fruits , vegetables and potato. The drivers of agricultural growth here were driven not by any capital intensive interventions, but initiatives of local Panchayat ,especially with regard to ‘operation barga’ and ‘boro rice’. The first gave a statutory right to the actual tiller ; the second ensured that water was made available for the second rice crop. However the myriad diversity that once marked Bengal’s rice is becoming more and more restrictive.
But the fairy tale has turned sour, perhaps bitter especially for Punjab. For the first time in post Independence India, the overall growth rate of Punjab is lower than the National growth rate . Agricultural production has plateaued, and the water table has sunk to such lows that it is no longer economically feasible to draw water. For the last forty years, Punjab has been utilizing sixty billion cubic meters of water for its bumper harvest, whereas its rainfall is about 20bcm, and the share in riparian waters is another 20bcm. Thus there has been a deficit of 20 bcm year after year, and it had to express itself in some form or the other.
In a recent study ‘ Chemical Fertilizers in our Water’ conducted in farms across Muktsar, Bhatinda and Ludhiana showed that water from most (tube) wells were contaminated with nitrates, and 20 percent of all sampled wells had nitrate levels above the safety limit of 50 mg per litre as established by the WHO. Several MNCs have decided not to establish their processing facilities in Punjab on account of the high level of water contamination, and also the high incidence of chemical residues in fruits and vegetables.
In West Bengal also, the problem is coming to the fore. In the agriculturally prosperous tracts of Murshidabad and Nadia, the excessive use of phosphate fertilizer has led to contamination of heavy metals like mercury, lead and cadmium. Over one third Blocks in the state are affected with the problem of arsenic, and this is also posing a major challenge to all of us.
What are the options ? Should we, in a knee jerk reaction throw the baby with the bathwater ? We do need fertilizers, but we need them in doses which can be absorbed, and which make ecological sense. We need to first check the soil, determine what the need is, and then offer our prescriptions . I do not recall the exact lines , but Voltaire is supposed to have said something like this : Physicians prescribe medicine about which they know something, for diseases about which they know little, and on people about whom they know nothing !
Therefore the need of the hour is to first understand the soil, then the crop and its nutrition requirements, and finally make up our minds on the dosage. This task is not mechanical , and cannot be done by remote control. This calls for a partnership of the farmer , the scientist, the agriculture department and last, but not the least of the fertilizer industry itself . And one must hasten to add here that because a substantial capacity in the fertilizer sector is with he co-operatives, it is eminently possible for co-ops in fertilizer sector to set the precedent .
Fertilizer companies must also learn to reinvent themselves as agribusiness organizations which meet all the input requirements of farmers – from seeds to inputs and soil nutrients. Moreover we should ask ourselves : why should all fertilizer be only ‘chemical’. And why should all fertilizer subsidy be earmarked only for chemical fertilizers. The Government of West Bengal has proposed that at least some part of the hundred thousand odd crore of subsidy for this sector is earmarked for eco friendly technologies in agriculture, including micro nutrients, and on farms which are operated by marginal and small farmers. This also makes sense from the point of view of equity, because in the normal course, the larger the farm holding, the higher is the ability to ‘access fertilizer’ and draw more subsidy from the system. The marginal and small farmer uses less fertilizer, and therefore the share of public money that goes into fertilizer subsidy is skewed in favour of the resource rich farmer.
We need to ask ourselves : is there an alternate cropping sequence which needs less water and fertilizer to give us the same , or more calories. I recall that calories came from a diverse range when I was a child. Wheat was important, but maize and bajra were not distant cousins. The area under coarse cereals had declined considerably, thereby adding to the ecological stress in these regions. The problem has been compounded by the fact that almost the entire PDS and Mid Day meal scheme is based on rice and wheat alone. Let each district draw up a soil and water table map, and look at cereals ,pulses and vegetables which need lesser external inputs and water. If we raise these questions today, we may have some answers in the days to come. Lectures such as this are therefore important to ensure a nuanced approach to important issues, and I hope that in the years to come, this Lecture series will play a seminal role in shaping agriculture policy for the state.