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‘NFL sensitising farmers about soil health and its effects’

As the  UN General Assembly has declared December 5 ‘World Soil Day’ and the year 2015 ‘International Year of Soils’, NFL is all geared up to celebrate the occasion with enthusiasm. Millennium Post spoke to National Fertilizers Ltd Chairman & Managing Director Manoj Mishra on various issues, including balanced fertilization in the country. Excerpts:-

India is celebrating ‘Soil Health Day’ on December 5, 2015. What is the need for this campaign?
With the increase in world population and rise in the demand of food production, it is of paramount importance to keep our soil healthy and productive. This campaign is being observed in order to bring awareness among the farmers of reasons for stagnating food grain production and deteriorating soil health.

What are the reasons for this stagnation food grain production in the country?
The continuous deterioration of soil health, imbalance use of fertilizers, non-availability of good quality seeds on time, depletion of ground water are some of the main reasons for stagnation in food grain production.

What is the essence of this campaign?
Soil Health is the continued capacity of soil to function as a vital living eco-system that sustains plants, animals and humans. The essence of this campaign is to have holistic development of farmers so as to have sustainable agricultural productivity. 

The Government of India is planning to implement this by spreading awareness among farmers about balanced use of fertilizers, soil health card, waste to compost etc. 

The event would be organized at all-India level and up to district level as well. NFL is also planning various programmes like bringing awareness among the farmers, facilitating and training the farmers, with the overall objective of supporting the efforts of the Government.  

How is NFL contributing towards this campaign?
NFL is planning to have extensive and intensive programmes to be observed during the fortnight starting 5th of December in all its primarily States like Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, etc. 

The intensive programmes have been identified for selected villages in these States, which shall be a 
combination of ‘Fun-cum-Educational’ events. The extensive programmes are mainly aimed at spreading awareness among the farmers about the importance of soil in particular and good agricultural practices at large. 

What steps are being taken by NFL in improving soil health conditions?
NFL has six static and four mobile soil testing labs. Through these, about 40,000 soil samples are analyzed annually. Based on the results of soil tests, soil health cards are distributed to farmers. Awareness among the farmers is spread to follow the recommendations, which improves not only the soil conditions but also productivity. 

During this year, approximately 25,000 soil samples have been analyzed for macro and micro nutrients till November 2015 and 35 farmer education programmes have been organised in various states of NFL marketing territory. Farmers are using excess urea to enhance productivity. 

How it is affecting the fertility of the soil? 
The farmers are using excess urea because of its lower price compared to other 
fertilizers like MoP and DAP. This is resulting in imbalanced fertilization of the soil affecting the NPK ratio. 

We need to rationalize the price of urea. This can be achieved if all the fertilizers are brought under the same scheme like Nutrient Based Scheme (NBS). At present, urea has been kept out of NBS. Further, we are making efforts to educate farmers on this issue through our extension programmes.

How is NFL ensuring balance fertilization and improving farm productivity?
NFL is primarily a urea producing company which produces only a single nutrient i.e. nitrogen. For facilitating the farmers to have all agri-inputs through single window, NFL has increased its product range by including imported fertilizers like DAP, MOP and trading in seeds, pesticides, etc.
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