Less Is Good, 'balanced' Is Great

‘Less’ is Good, ‘Balanced’ is Great Dr Rahul Mirchandani, Executive Director, Aries Agro Limited, discusses how excesses have caused the precarious state of soil fertility and India, proposes possible quick-fix and long term remedies and elaborates on the impact that imbalanced crop nutrition is having on human health.

Indian farming has to readjust its priorities. We as a nation are trying to leapfrog to farming practices that include genetically engineered seeds, micro-irrigation, green house cultivation, hydroponics, integrated pest management, computer based modeling to track disease and pest incidence, mechanization and the like. However, very few of the farmers have addressed the first step – feed your crop correctly! In the process we spend on practices that are great in themselves, but work sub-optimally because imbalanced nutrition has constricted the energy levels of our crops and they do not have the energy that comes from balanced food to improve productivity levels. No matter how great a seed you plant, unless it is nourished in its infancy and at appropriate stages with all the 16 nutrients required, it will never achieve the productivity levels that it is designed to achieve. You may have an integrated pest management solution, but you are using expensive poisons on agricultural produce that will kill pests but will later be consumed by human beings. Residues of harmful plant protection chemicals will find their way into the food chain and the ecosystem and also increase cost of cultivation and indebtedness of farmers as these are almost always sourced on credit. Alternatively, balancing nutrition to plants and crops will inevitably improve resistance that will keep pests at bay and also reduce costs as medicine is always more expensive than food. The need for application of harmful chemicals will reduce with proper crop nutrition. The problem in India is that our farmers have limited access to information and awareness is restricted and at times skewed in nature. There is an overuse of primary fertilizers like Nitrogen (eg. Urea), Phosphorus (eg. DAP) and Potash (eg. SOP). These are traditional major nutrients that form 3 of the 16 nutrients required by plants. Studies have shown that though the usage of these nutrients have risen sharply in recent years, land area under cultivation and yields have remained static and at times even are on the decline. This points to a wasteful use of these elements that are typically subsidized by the governments. Farmers find these fertilizers inexpensive and demand grows each year, though there is really no need for usage levels to rise. The government is expected to have a fertilizer subsidy bill of Rs. 1,00,000 crores – much of which can be curbed and perennial shortages of these fertilizers reduced if the usage is made more rational and efficient. Trials have shown that similar yields can be achieved by reducing traditional fertilizer dosage by as much as half in certain areas and on certain crops. Imbalanced crop nutrition is worsened with overuse of the three major nutrients and underuse or ignoring of the micronutrients (zinc, iron, copper, Manganese, boron, molybdenum) and three secondary nutrients (sulphur, calcium and magnesium). Typically, in a balanced crop nutrition program, the usage of micronutrients should be 4% of the quantity used of the major fertilizers. In India, the estimate of this usage ratio is as low as 0.87%, showing a tremendous underuse of the micronutrients. Each of these micronutrients has a critical, unique role in crop physiology, productivity and in the plant’s growth cycle. They are called ‘micro’ only because they are needed in much smaller quantities, but they cannot be replaced or their importance undermined. Micronutrient deficiencies have reached alarming proportions in India and the extent of the problem gets evident when looking at the results of a massive soil testing effort conducted by the Indian Institute of Soil Science (see Table). Close to 2.5 lakh soil samples were tested for micronutrient levels across 18 states of India, and zinc deficiency was observed in almost 1 of every 2 samples tested. Boron deficiency was observed in every third sample tested. These deficiencies also changed from state to state, showing a need for companies to design customized formulations of micronutrients for each geography based on these observations.

Table : Extent of Micronutrient deficiencies in soils of India A study by Dr.M.V.Singh of the Indian Institute of Soil Science, Nabibagh, Bhopal 462 038.

State

No. of samples Zn

Cu

Percent deficient soil samples Fe Mn B

Mo

Andhra Pradesh Assam Bihar Delhi Gujarat Haryana Jammu & Kashmir Karnataka Kerala Madhya Pradesh Meghalaya Orissa Pondicherry Punjab Rajasthan Tamilnadu Uttar Pradesh West Bengal

8158 12165 19214 201 29765 21848 93 27860 650 31966 95 16040 4108 16320 183 27733 25846 6547

49.4 34.0 54.0 20.0 24.0 60.5 12.0 72.8 34.0 42.7 57.0 54.0 8.0 48.0 21.0 58.6 45.7 36.0

<1 <1 3.0 -40.0 2.0 -5.3 31.0 <1 2.0 -4.0 0.4 -6.0 0.7 0

3.0 2.0 6.0 -8.0 20.0 -34.9 <1 6.6 0 0 2.0 14.3 -17.3 6.2 0

1.3 20.0 2.0 -4.0 3.6 -17.4 0 1.4 23.0 0 3.0 2.4 -6.1 3.0 3.0

--39 -2 --32 -22 -----18 24 68

----10 28 ---18 ---------

Whole of India

248786

48.4

2.5

12.0

5.0

33

13

By addressing these micronutrient deficiencies, as has been achieved by progressive farmers in several states, pockets of excellence have emerged as showcase of the productivity benefits of balanced crop nutrition. Trials across agricultural universities have assessed an economic benefit cost ratio of as high as 6:1 by the use of Chelated (specially designed chemically inert, water soluble complex forms) micronutrients and about 2.5:1 by the use of inorganic (sulphate forms) micronutrients. Yields have also risen by an average of 35% when chelated micronutrients were used. The cost savings to farmers have been as a result of reducing the over application of traditional major fertilizers, reduction in labour costs by using sprayable nutrients rather than soil applied fertilizers and reduction in the need for expensive pesticides because of better plant resistance to diseases and pest attacks. Reduced residue levels also made the products more ‘exportable’, improved keeping quality and shelf life of the crops and thus increased farm gate realizations. The deficiency of micronutrients are also having a ripple effect and impacting human health as these nutrient starved cereals, fruits and vegetables are consumed by us as food. The World Health Organisation (WHO) World Food Report listed the top 20 risks to human life in the world. Notably, while being born underweight and unsafe sex were the top 2 risks listed in the report, th th Iron deficiency was listed as the 9 major risk and Zinc deficiency was listed as the 11 leading risk to humans. These invisible effects of trace element or micronutrient deficiencies are taking a toll on our children’s IQ, causing physical weakness and fatigue, lifestyle diseases and making the working population less productive. In India, 22,000 maternal deaths were reported due to anaemia (iron deficiency). 6.6 million children were born mentally impaired due to Iodine deficiency. Zinc plays a major role in the immune function of human beings, reproductive physiology, dark vision adaptation and insulin storage etc. It is an anti-oxidant and its deficiency directly promotes oxidative stress. Zinc deficiency causes stunted growth in children. Infact, the extent of the problem becomes apparent when one considers the World Health Organisation Report that attributes 8,00,000 deaths worldwide due to zinc deficiency. Worldwide, zinc deficiency is responsible for approximately 16 percent of lower respiratory tract infections, 18 percent of malaria and 10 percent of diarrhoeal disease.

Similar roles are played by other micronutrients as well, including copper (infant malnutrition), magnesium (low birth weight of children and maternal mortality), calcium (osteoporosis and weak bones), manganese (cartilage disorders), Boron (affects hormone metabolism) Dr B Sesikeran, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, said at a recent Agromax Conference organized by CII’s Young Indians at Hyderabad that “Food can affect the mind, and deficiencies in certain elements in the body can promote mental depression.” Correcting trace element or micronutrient imbalance will not only improve farm economics and agricultural productivity in the farm sector but also help in providing nutritive food to humans. This will help in safer pregnancies, healthier mothers and children, better school performance, improved work capacity, greater productivity and increased economic growth. It is time to make efforts to ensure that “Balanced Crop Nutrition is made a National Imperative”.

Dr Rahul Mirchandani is Executive Director, Aries Agro Limited and ational Vice Chairman – Confederation of Indian Industry’s Young Indians. He has a decade of experience in the specialty plant nutrition sector and handles the marketing efforts of Aries in India. In addition to a CFA and an MBA from Australia, Rahul has a Ph.D. in Rural Marketing from MIMS University, Mumbai. He teaches Marketing, Consumer Behaviour, Rural Marketing, Marketing Research & Integrated Marketing Communication at MIMS University and is Visiting Faculty for Rural Marketing at IIM-Ahmedabad. Rahul can be reached at [email protected]