This came out during discussion on 'use of fortified/coated fertilizers containing sulphur and micro-nutrients to maintain soil health' in the Parliamentary Consultative Meeting held today.

Expressing concern at large scale deficiencies of essential elements in the soil, Agriculture Minister Shri Sharad Pawar said that 'the inadequate and imbalanced nutrient use coupled with neglect of organic manures has caused deficiencies of nutrients particularly secondary and micro-nutrients under intensive agriculture. The deficiencies are becoming more critical for sulphur, zinc and boron. The limiting nutrients, not allowing full expression of other nutrients, lower the overall fertilizer use efficiency and crop productivity. The impaired soil health is, therefore, one of the reasons for stagnating crop productivity in the country. The nutrient supplies need to be supplemented through addition of fertilizers to the soils for sustaining soil health and higher productivity.'

'There is an urgent need to have fertilizers fortified and coated with micro and secondary nutrients to correct their widespread deficiencies in Indian soils. These fertilizers could not be produced on a large scale due to absence of a provision in the fertilizer policy for meeting their additional cost on account of fortification and coating. The Government has recently taken a historical policy decision in allowing additional cost of fortification and coating of fertilizers to manufacturers. The manufacturers are allowed to sell all the FCO approved fortified/coated subsidized fertilizers at a price upto 5% above the MRP of the subsidized fertilizer, except zincated Urea and boronated SSP for which the provision has been made upto 10% above MRP. The production of coated/fortified fertilizers has been restricted upto a maximum of 20% of total production of respective subsidized fertilizers by the fertilizer companies,' the Minister said.

The Minister informed Members of Parliament that about 46% of Indian soils are deficient in sulphur while it was in about 130 districts in early 1990s, the deficiency today covers over 240 districts. It has been found that with proper application of sulphur yields of cereals grow by upto 55%, pulses upto 60% and oilseeds upto 72%. Farmers get from 7.5 to 38 times returns as compared to the cost of applying sulphur.

Similarly, about 49% Indian soils are deficient in zinc, especially in Indo-Gangetic plain and Deccan Plateau. About 33% of Indian soils are deficient in boron, mostly in Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal. Lesser deficiencies of molybdenum, iron, manganese and copper occur in different parts of the country. Proper application of these nutrients leads to significant improvement in crop yields.

The Minister informed that site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) carried out at 10 locations was found to result in grain productivity of over 13 tonne per hectare of rice/wheat. This has generated an additional income of Rs 20,000 per hectare under irrigated conditions.

The meeting was attended by senior officers of Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, Department of Agricultural Research and Education/ICAR and Ministry of Fertilizers.

The members who attended the meeting include S/Shri Pulin Bihari Baske, Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Gobinda Chandra Naskar, Sardar Sher Singh Ghubaya, Ramesh Rathod, K.C. Venugopal and Smt. Santosh Chowdhary (Lok Sabha) Ms. Mabel Rebello, Dr. N. Janardhana Reddy, Brij Bhushan Tiwari, Govindrao Adik and Sharad A. Joshi. (Rajya Sabha).#