State farmers lack interest in nutrient management: Experts
Source: Chronicle News Service / Premchand Thongam

Imphal, October 02 2021: Farmers in the state, who are engaged in paddy farming, do not have proper knowledge on the nutrients and the amount required by paddy plants and as such they have no interest in nutrient management for their paddy plants, said Central Agricultural University, College of Agriculture, Department of Agronomy assistant professor Dr Jamkhogin Lhungdim.

Speaking to The People's Chronicle in an exclusive interview, Dr Jamkhogin explained that like human and other living beings, plants also need food and nutrition.

They get these nutrients from water, air, sunlight and soil.

Macronutrients are the nutrients that plants need the most whereas micronutrients are the nutrients that the plants do not need much.

Micronutrients that plants get from soil include iron, copper, zinc, chlorine, boron and manganese.

On the other hand, calcium, magnesium, potassium, nitrogen and phosphorus are the macronutrients they require.

Plants cannot grow properly if they get lesser nutrients from soil and it affects their life cycle leading to compromised plant health and abetment of pest infestation.

Shortage of these nutrients in soil can be supplied by applying manure or fertilisers.

However, one cannot simply apply these nutrients without understanding the requirement.

This is where the importance of nutrient management comes in.

Right management of nutrient leads to proper growth of plants and good yield.

Manure or fertilisers cannot be applied more or less.

Unfortunately, in the state, farmers apply nutrient fertilisers without knowing the actual requirement and this practice has been going on for a long period.

This leads to decrease in crop yield.

Different farmers apply only nitrogen or potassium or phosphorus or any two of them or all of them in their fields.

They do not add the other required macro elements or micro-elements which lead to decrease in crop yield, Dr Jamkhogin said.

In the light of such decades' long practices there is the crucial need for taking up soil nutrient management initiatives in the state so that the ideal quality of soil could be restored.

In order to restore soil health, one can use Integrated Nutrient Management (INM) model, which uses both chemical fertiliser and organic manure.

The main objective of this initiative is to maintain the ideal quality of soil fertility and also to ensure adequate availability of nutrients needed by plants.

It has benefits to ecology, society and economy as well.

Application of organic manure made from plants, plantation of leguminous plants to fix nitrogen in soil, recycling crop remnants, and using organic fertilisers such as compost, vermicompost, biogas slurry, excretory wastes of poultry, bio-compost, phosphor-compost and cow dung are parts of INM model, he explained.

In the state, farmers apply a preset amount of chemical fertilisers fixed by a common practice without actually knowing the required amount.

Each paddy type has different requirement and the requirement is different from one place to another.

In some locations, farmers could not provide adequate amount of fertiliser while in some places, they apply excess amount of fertilisers due to the ongoing practice.

In such a situation, giving proper awareness and education on soil health and nutrient management has become the need of the hour.

Keeping in view of global warming and climate change, Integrated Nutrient Management has become more important and at the same time initiatives are being taken up to reduce and stop using chemical fertilisers considering their negative impacts.

Though people are aware of the negative impact of using chemical fertilisers, they are not able to adopt INM model due to various reasons including less population of cattle and poultry and limited resources.

At the same time, chemical fertiliser has been the easiest means to get a good crop yield and as such farmers are still using them.

However, it is a must to let them be made aware of the negative impact of chemical fertiliser to the environment, ecosystem and human health, said Dr Jamhogin Lhungdim.

(This article is published under Media Fellowship Programme in Scientific Journalism of the Public Relations and Media Management Cell of Central Agricultural University Imphal.

For further information regarding this article and other related matters, one can contact CAU PRMM Cell:s information and publicity officer Dr Indira Thounaojam or through e-mail: [email protected]) .

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