Dr Raja Muzaffar Bhat
I have been witnessing every year dozens of seminars , workshops organised by Government and Non Government Organisations on the issue of protection of environment , organic farming and issues related to this. Government authorities who are invited in these programmes , come and speak about the importance of organic farming. They admit that pesticides are damaging our soil , environment, and human health but these utterances are restricted to these seminars and workshops only. At Government level there is no concrete policy towards introducing organic farming. Authorities are not ready to change their style of working and thrust is not at all given towards creating organic fertilizer centres and factories. The Department of Agriculture celebrates world soil health day on Dec 5th every year. But we know that soil health is destroyed by chemical fertilizers which the department has been recommending and licensing since decades. At a time when several Agri based companies are shifting towards organic farming, the Department of Agriculture, Horticulture and even Flouriculture in J&K have not been able to even produce a quintal of organic fertilizer. All the thrust of these Govt departments including our Agriculture Universities is focused on chemical fertilizers and pesticides which is destroying soil and crops across our State on constant basis.
Setting up Organic Fertilizer units :
Several scientific studies show that without a diverse solid food web our gardens and agriculture fields gravitate toward being a desert. The soil food-web refers to the organisms living in and on the soil. While this includes plants and animals, especially the microorganism. The chemical fertilizers directly attacks these micro organisms. Why cannot we create such centres where we can produce large quantity of organic fertilizer or compost ? As already mentioned in one of my previous columns , Parimpora fruit mandi in Srinagar alone produces 25 metric tons of organic waste daily , but not even 1 % of it is processed by Agriculture or Horticulture department. Experts say out of 25 metric tons of organic waste around 10 to 15 quintals of organic fertilizer can easily be produced by processing these rotten fruits and vegetables in compost units, mechanical composters etc. Similarly in Jammu’s Narwal more than 30 metric tons of organic waste gets accumulated daily during unloading of fruit and vegetable trucks. Instead processing this waste , it is dumped by Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) and Jammu Municipal Corporation (JMC) at different landfill sites wherefrom it emits terrible smell and creates lot of inconvenience. We are destroying our wealth by not processing it. Imagine if we have two organic fertilizer units established at Parimpora and Narwal mandis in Srinagar / Jammu respectively , how much waste we will convert into wealth ? I have brought this matter into the notice of Horticulture Minister Syed Basharat Bukhari and Secretary Horticulture M S Malik who both are very much optimistic about the idea. Having a healthy, diverse soil food web is critical if we need a healthy agricultural produce. They do the work of creating 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 substance 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 microorganisms. 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.
Conclusion :
For fertilization it is better to add organic matter in the form of compost, cow dung plus the occasional bio stimulants to fill in the gaps. Researches done in recent years has shown that use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers has damaged the soil health.
The vegetables and fruits grown with chemical fertilizers cause severe kidney and liver ailments. Experts say that the increased instances of cancer are also linked to excessive use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Agriculture and Horticulture departments must without any delay draft a policy on organic farming so that the same is introduced among the farmers of J&K. Sher e Kashmir Agriculture University Srinagar and Jammu should also come forward with some innovative models that will help develop organic fertilizers for the apple growers, paddy and vegetable farmers across state . Small organic fertilizer units should be set up in smaller fruit and vegetable mandis across state. The Entrepreneur Development Institute (EDI) , Khadi Village Industries Board (KVIB) , Horticulture and Agriculture departments must encourage educated unemployed youth to set up small organic fertilizer units by providing them necessary seed capital money.
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