Farmers Movement Archive

Experts caution Telangana farmers on excess use of fertilisers

HYDERABAD: Farmers in Telangana are using excess fertilisers, raising concern among agriculture scientists, who said indiscriminate use of urea and other chemical fertilisers will not only lead to pest and disease attack, but also result in damaging the biological life of soil, loss of yield and lack of quality produce. Agriculture minister Singireddy Niranjan Reddy said the farmers in Telangana, on an average, were using 173 kg of fertiliser per acre as against the national average of 51.2 kg per acre and a world average of 78.4 kg. The minister appealed to the farmers to reduce the usage of fertilisers. Enquiries by TOI revealed that though over utilization of fertilisers is not new to Telangana, farmers indulged in indiscriminate use of urea during the current Vaanakalam (kharif) crop with the wrong perception that the first or second round of urea employed by them was washed away by the intermittent rain. Members of farmers welfare organisations blamed it on fertiliser companies’ aggressive campaign in rural areas promoting excess use of fertilisers and the state government’s failure to check it. All India Kisan Sabha vice-president Sarampalli Malla Reddy said an inquiry should be conducted into alleged nexus between the agriculture department officials, scientists and fertiliser, seed and pesticide companies. “In the last few years, various farmer welfare associations tried to create awareness among the farmers about the harms of excess use of fertilisers. But our awareness programmes fizzled out because we were not able to compete with the campaigns of fertiliser companies. These companies spend crores of rupees on marketing and campaigning. Youngsters are hired who go to villages in automobiles with sound systems and aggressively promote use of fertilisers,” said Malla Reddy, adding that a majority of the farmers were illiterate and follow each other in cultivation norms. Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University principal scientist and head of soil unit Dr P Surendra Babu said urea should be used two to three times during the entire crop cycle.

The Times of India

2020-09-07

Hyderabad