Bhanwar Singh Chandana, the director of Astha Sansthan while laying out the objectives of this public hearing pointed out that "An informed discussion on agricultural policies like the fertilizer one is an imperative as agriculture still is the backbone of this country and more so for a state like Rajasthan. He further said that "existing fertilizer subsidy regime has done injustice done to the famers of dryland, adivasi and small farmers of Rajasthan who use little or no chemical fertilizers. This public consultation aims to question this historic anomaly and bring out the voices of this marginalized segment of farmers of Rajasthan."
Every year Central Government spends crores of rupees on chemical fertilizer subsidies. The budget allocation for 2009-10 for fertilizer subsidies is Rs 49,980 crores. However, over the years, this investment has proven counterproductive as it has led to indiscriminate use of chemicals and subsequent soil degradation and yield stagnation. Union Finance Minister during his budget speech expressed concern over the declining response of agricultural productivity to increased fertilizer usage in the country and proposed a shift to a nutrient based direct subsidy regime instead of the current product pricing regime to ensure balanced usage of chemical fertilizers. [1]
"On the one hand while government is grudgingly accepting that increased chemical fertilizer usage has lead to degradation of the soil and resultant threat to food security, the proposed reforms are just old wine in new bottle as it only supports synthetic chemical fertilizers and does not have any scope for ecological and traditional farming practices" said Mansingh Sisodia of Vagad Mazdoor Kisan Sanghatan, Dungarpur-Banswada.
The chemical fertilisers' consumption increased from a mere 0.07 million tonnes (Mt) in 1950-51 to a staggering 23.15 Mt in the year 2008-09. These chemicals are released into the agrarian system at highly subsidized rates. Out of 528 major districts in India, fertiliser consumption in 78 districts is over 200 kg/ha and in 15 districts, it is less than five kg/ha. The dryland area which constitutes 60 % of the cultivated land, supports a greater portion of the farming population and produces a major chunk of the countries food requirements gets only 40% of the total subsidy benefit.
In Rajasthan, the consumption of chemical fertilizers (NPK) has been low with a per hectare usage of 43.65 Kg [2006-07] with the total usage was 93613 tonnes [2006-07] varying from 399.90 kg/ha to 2.16 kg/ha in Churu.
Devilal Manat, farmer from Chundawada Panchayat, Dungarpur district opined that "this is gross injustice. Just because we do not want to spoil our lands with chemical fertilizers we have been kept out of benefits of fertilizer subsidies, the largest government support for agriculture, which reached an obscenely huge amount of Rupees one lakh crore last year [2008-09]"
The participants from various districts of Rajasthan like Alwar, Jaipur, Tonk, Bhilwara, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Sirohi, Udaipur, Banswara, Dungarpur etc concluded that the new policy must include direct support for the farmer for taking up organic-ecological agricultural practices that are more suited for a dry state like Rajasthan. Support for biomass and livestock development should be the foundation of this policy which would ensure that the inputs for our agriculture are organized at the local village level and not provided by giant synthetic chemical fertilizer companies as it is happening today.
The public hearing at Udaipur was last of the four public consultations that Greenpeace India has been doing since the time Union government had proposed reforms in the National fertilizer Subsidy policy in July 2009 "We have been organizing these public consultations in dryland areas and in regions where farmers practice eco-friendly farming" said Rajesh Krishnan Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner, Greenpeace India. He further said that "We hope that the Government would take notice of these valid concerns and recommendations".
Contact information
Rajesh Krishnan
Sustainable Agriculture Campaigner,
Greenpeace India
Mob: +91 9900897341
rajesh.krishnan@greenpeace.org
Bhanwar Singh Chandana
Coordinating Director
Astha Sansthan,
Mob: +91 9414166348
astha39@sancharnet.in
Notes to Editor
1. Union Finance Minister’s budget speech can be accessed at http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2009-10/bs/speecha.htm (Refer para. 34 in this page for his statement on fertilizer subsidies)