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| Agri Deptt promotes chemical fertilizers | | Raises brows on Soil Health Day | | Early Times Report
Srinagar, Dec 7: Endangering the health of soil across the state by promoting chemical fertilizers, the department of agriculture raised many a brows on December 5 by observing World Soil Day.
Studies have already sounded alarm bells. The studies suggest that agriculture fields gravitate toward being a desert. The soil food web refers to the organisms living in and on the soil. This includes plants and animals, especially micro-organisms.
Having a healthy, diverse soil food web is important for healthy agricultural produce. They create excellent soil structure, making nutrients available to plants and even protecting plants from predators. There are special bacteria that take nitrogen out of the air and convert it into a form that plants can use.
There are special fungi that can get phosphorus out of the soil and bring it to plants, something plants have a difficult time getting themselves. In return, the plants send a huge amount of carbohydrates produced during photosynthesis down into the soil to feed these beneficial micro-organisms. We definitely need these organisms in our vegetable gardens, apple orchards and paddy fields. This effect on soil is one important reason we want to avoid chemicals in our agriculture fields. Farmers need a healthy soil food web in order to have a healthy agriculture produce. This means no pesticides and no chemical fertilizers.
"For fertilization it is better to add organic matter in the form of compost, mulch and plants, cow dung plus the occasional fertilizers and bio stimulants to fill in the gaps. For pest control, it means creating plants which are so healthy that plant predators won't attack them in the first place" said Mohammad Saleem an organic farming expert.
Researches done in recent years has shown that use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has damaged the soil health. The vegetables grown with chemical fertilizers cause cancer and the increased instances of cancer are directly related to excessive use of pesticides and chemicals.
" We appeal Agriculture Minister to make some drastic changes in the agriculture policies . If use of chemical fertilizers continues and officers of agriculture department propagate fungicides , and pesticides , we may head towards a disaster " said Fayaz Ahmad a farmer from Kulgam. As per details available with Early Times the department of agriculture has purchased chemical fertilizers worth crores from last few years and a politically backed mafia is involved in supplying substandard pesticides across state. According to sources 20 to 30 % of pesticides which is supplied to farmers is of substandard quality.
The paddy seeds supplied this year was also of inferior quality some farmers have been alleging Early Times had filed a report about supply of substandard fertilizers recently. As per reliable information available that testing laboratories of Lal Mandi Srinagar which were washed away by Floods of last year are completely defunct and there is every chance that Kashmir Markets will see increase in sale and Purchase of Substandard pesticides and Fertilizers. |
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