Fertilizers & Pesticides in India

Growth Trends of Fertilizers and Pesticides in India

Introduction:

Green revolution in India has witnessed a jump in agricultural production with the introduction of HYVs of various crops and by following intensive cultivation practices with the use of fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs. The intensive use of inputs has not only polluted the soil, water and the environment causing their slow degradation but also affected the human beings. With the increase in the country’s population, compulsion would be not only to mobilize the agricultural production but also to increase further in a sustainable manner. The scientists have realized that the green revolution with high input use has reached a plateau and is now sustained with diminishing return and falling dividend. Therefore, there is a need to study the past trends in inputs usage like fertilizers and pesticides which are the major components in crop production and future challenges and strategies for sustainable agriculture. This paper is an attempt in this direction.

Chemical Fertilizers:

Consumption of chemical fertilizers has increased tremendously in recent years. Nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are the primary fertilizers nutrients which are widely used in our country.

Trends in Consumption of chemical fertilizers in India

(In lakh tonnes)

Year	Nitrogenous	Phosphatic	Potassic	Total (N+P+K)
	(N)	(P)	(K)	In lakh Tones	Per hectare (kg)
1995-96	0.55	0.08	0.06	0.69	NEG
1996-97	2.10	0.53	0.29	2.92	1.90
1997-98	14.87	4.62	2.28	21.77	13.13
1998-99	36.78	12.14	6.24	55.16	31.83
1999-00	72.51	27.21	10.68	110.40	61.30
2000-01	73.86	30.14	11.68	115.68	63.49
2001-02	79.97	32.21	13.238	125.46	67.49
2002-03	80.46	33.21	13.61	127.28	69.84
2003-04	84.27	28.44	8.84	121.55	65.53(E)
2004-05	87.89	26.69	9.08	123.66	66.69(E)
2005-06	95.07	29.32	11.25	135.64	73.12(E)
2006-07	98.23	28.97	11.56	138.76	74.81(E)
2007-08	103.02	29.77	10.29	143.08	76.75
2008­­-09	117.38	41.09	14.71	173.18	-

Source: Various issues of pesticides information (PAI)

The total consumption of chemical fertilizers is in increasing trends from 0.69 lakh tonnes in 1995-96 to 173.18 lakh tonnes in 2008-09. Decreasing trends in total fertilizers consumption is observed from 127.28 lakh tonnes in 2002-03 to 121.55 lakh tonnes in 2003-04. The same decreasing trend is observed in Phosphatic and Potassic fertilizer consumption during the same period. In case of nitrogenous fertilizers, continuous increasing trends is observed from 1995-96 to 2008-09. Fertilizer consumption per hectare was negligible (0.5 kg per hectare) in 1995-96 increased to 76.75 kg per hectare during 2007-08.

Consumption of pesticides (technical grade material)

(In thousand tonnes)

Year	Pesticides
1995-96	2.35
1996-97	8.62
1997-98	24.32
1998-99	45.00
1999-00	75.89

The trend in consumption of pesticide is increasing from 2.35 thousand tonnes to 75.8 thousand tonnes from 1995-96 to 1999-2000.

Trends in consumption pattern of different groups of pesticides

(Technical Grade Material, MT)

Year	Insecticides	Fungicides	Herbicides	Others	Total
1999	67692	16365	4160	1020	89237
2000	56424	17530	4730	925	79609
2001	47074	17770	5162	1075	71081
2002	49516	18465	5367	975	74323
2003	55166	18925	6695	1280	82066
2004	56239	17313	9975	1315	84842
2005	55209	16956	10798	1315	84278
2006	59487	19197	10557	1345	90586
2007	38111	20795	10651	1625	71182
2008	37602	21695	11869	1725	72891
Compound Growth Rates (%)
1999-06	-0.44	1.07	16.52	5.59	1.22
2006-08	-20.49	6.31	6.03	13.25	-10.30
1999-08	-3.88	2.31	13.70	6.71	-0.59

Source: Various issues of pesticides information (PAI)

Pesticide usage:

Herbicides:

The use of herbicides has gradually improved in the country. During the period 1999 to 2008 herbicides had an annual growth rate 13.70 percent. The share of herbicides in total pesticides consumption has increased from 4.7 percent in 1999 to 16.3 percent 2008. The used of herbicides is increasing in agriculturally in advanced regions of the country due to rising cost of labour and shift of labour from agriculture to other investors. Nearly, 85 percent of herbicides are used on rice, tea, bee and beans (BAMI – 2007).

Insecticides:

India is predominantly an insecticides market. The most important crops with regard to insecticide usage are cotton and rice which account for about 70 percent of total pesticide consumption in India. During the last 10 year (1999-08), the consumption of insecticide has declined an annual compound growth rate of 3.88 percent. Organo phosphates dominate the Indian market with about 50 percent share followed by the synthetic pyrephroids(19 percent), organo chlorines (18 percent), carbamats (4 percent) and bio-pesticides(1 percent). While organo chlorine group of pesticides has been banned and phased out in advanced countries, India still uses some of this products with adverse impact on environmental and human health (BAMI – 2007).

Fungicides:

At present, fungicides most commonly used agro-chemicals for growing food crops and vegetables. In India the use of fungicides is most popular in fruits followed by potato, rice, tea and coffee. The use of fungicides has increased significantly (2.31 percent) during 1999-2008 and its share in total pesticide consumption has increased from about 18 percent to about 30 percent.

Problems Posed by Fertilizers and Pesticides:

Fertilizers:

Continuous use of inorganic fertilizers mainly containing major nutrients NPK in large quantities and neglecting organic and bio-fertilizers paved the way for deterioration of soil health and in turn ill effects on plants, human being and cattle.  The adverse effects of using fertilizers are explained below.

I Nitrate pollution:

Nitrogen is applied to the soil as urea (Which is readily hydrolyzed to ammonium), ammonium nitrate or a combination of ammonium and nitrate. About 40-60 percent of applied nitrogen is lost by voltalization run off, de-nitrification and leaching. The nitrate that is leached causes a lot of visible and invisible hazardous effects.

Visible effects:

Plants become succulent and dark green colour thus becoming more susceptible to pests and diseases. Ex. BPH in paddy in most of the paddy growing regions.

It increases the growth, weakens the stem and brings lodging in crops like paddy. It reduces the quality of the seed

Invisible effects:

Pollution of ground water by nitrates : Excess nitrate moves below the root zone or into the ground water (once the ground water becoming polluted it remaining for extended periods of time) and draining of such water causes or disease called "Methemoglobinemia", where nitrite (reduced form of nitrate) interferes with oxygen carrying capacity of blood.

Japanese encephalitis (JE): Excess use of urea in rice fields promotes the growth and spread of vectors causing of human disease called JE. Children between the age group between 4-14 years are mainly affected.

Nitrosomine illness is caused by the presence of secondary amines which causes cancer in human beings.

Feroxyl nitrates, alkyl nitrates, vapours of HNO₃ and nitrate aerosoles causes respiratory illness

HNO₃ in aerosols may lead to acid rains causing lot of damage to ecosystem and buildings

Nitrate oxide produced by de-nitrification damages the stratospheric ozone layer.

Eutrophication:

This refers to the process of enrichment of surface water bodies with nutrients, addition of plant nutrients particularly P&N to surface water bodies such as lakes, reservoirs and streams result in intense proliferation and accumulation of algae and higher aquatic plants in excessive quantities which can result in detrimental changes in water quality and can significantly interfere with man’s use of the water resource.

Soil acidification and alkalization:

Development of soil acidification and alkalization due to continuos use of acidic (NH₄ Cl (NH₂ ) SO₄ etc.) and basic (NANO₃ ) (CAN basic slag etc.) fertilizers causing imbalance in nutrients availability to crops and effecting activities of beneficial micro organisms.

Iron, aluminium and manganese toxicities in acidic soil and sodium toxicity in alkali soils effect the availability of other nutrients and deteriorate fertility and productivity of soils.

The continuous application of ‘P’ fertilizers can result in the build up of trace metal contaminants such as arsenic and cadmium contained in the fertilize.

Excessive application of potassic fertilizers decrease vit "C" (ascorbic acid) and carotene content in vegetable and fruits.

Excessive application of chemical fertilizers leads to malnutrition due to degradation of carbohydrates and proteins both qualitatively and quantitatively.

Excessive application of chemical fertilizers effects physical properties of soil such as infiltration, soil aeration, soil structure and bulk density etc.

Pesticides:

Pesticides enter environment mainly by air, water and soil. Pesticides enter air by sprayed drift or voltalization from soil or water. The entry of pesticides in water is mainly by surface runoff, sediment transport from treated soil, industrial wastes and direct application of pesticides to control acquatic pests. Soil receives pesticides when the pesticides are directly applied besides runoff from plants, rains and dumping of empty containers of pesticides. The challenges posed by pesticide usage are explained below:

1.      Indiscriminate and defective handling of the pesticides causes environmental pollution and leads to health hazardous.

2.      Pesticides resistance: Consistent use of pesticide to control pests had led to development of resistance among pests and vectors and adverse effect on non target organisms.

3.      Destruction of beneficial organisms: Continuous use of pesticides had an adverse effect on beneficial organisms like honeybees, pollinators, parasites and predators. At the height of the American boll worm problem in Guntur and Prakasham districts in Andhra Pradesh in 1986 almost all the predaceous bird fauna were totally exterminated. The crisis in cotton cultivation posed by boll worms, white flies etc. leading to total crop loss and eventual frustration and suicides of many farmers in A.P.

4.      Pesticides poisoning:

Manufacturing Level: Persons engaged in manufacturing of insecticides are subjected to insecticides exposure. This results in chronic poisoning. The poisoning symptoms of aldrin, dialdrin and endrine are headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, loss of weight and memory.

Operating level: The majority of cases occur in hot and humid field conditions. The reason is that the operators or farmers do not wear protective clothing.

Consumer level: Chlorinated hydro carbons can accumulate in the adipose tissues of man. It is very difficult to ascertain the extent of safety of residue in human beings. However, there are a number of evidences that some forms of wild life are suffering due to bio-magnification of these residues.

Herbicides:

Persistence in soil: The herbicide applied to one crop may persist in the soil at concentration high enough to damage subsequent sensitive crops.

Residues in crops: At Coimbatore, the sorghum grain & stalk showed detectable amount of residues when atrazine was applied at 0.5 and 1.0 Kg / ha which was well below the MRL.

Toxicity: Herbicides like trifluralin were found associated with nitrosamines, which are potent carcinogens. However, at 1.12 kg/ha of trifluralin, the top soil layer (15 cm) would contain only 0.006 ppb of nitrosamine and this is too small amount to cause cancer .

 

Fungicides:

Emergence of resistant strains: Improper use of systematic fungicides like (carbendazium) resulted into development of resistant stains of different plant pathogens.

Health Hazards: Maneb and Streptocycline caused dermititis and some people working with captan or in fields treated with it showed symptoms of skin irritation and rashes (Sharma Kaur ).

Fungicide residues: If the fungicides are used judiciously, they may pose serious residue problems.

Non-target effects: Copper fungicides used for the control of coffee rust resulted in increased occurrence of coffee leaf miner and of spider mites (Panlam )

Beever  reported that the residues of captan when used as spray against Botrytis storage of kiwi fruit were within the acceptable limits when used as per recommended dose. However, the increased number of sprays resulted in more than acceptable limit of residue levels.

Strategies to Overcome the Challenges of Present Situation:

After seeing, the deleterious effects arising with the use of agro chemicals coupled with the degradation of cultivable land and increasing agricultural pollution has created an unhealthy situation in the country. In order to balance this situation, organic farming, which aims at cultivating the land and raising crops in such a way as to keep the soil alive and in good health, may be an alternative to the present system of farming solely depending on chemicals.

It is a method of farming, which avoids or largely excludes the use of compound chemicals such as chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides. Instead of those natural resources such as organic matters, minerals and microbes are used. It gives an idea to use all sources, which are natural so that soil health is maintained.

Organic farming systems rely on large-scale application of animal or FYM, compost, crop rotations, cooperative residues, green manuring, vermicompost, bio-fertilizers, bio-pesticides and biological control.

Key characteristics:

Protecting the long-term fertility of soils by maintaining organic matter levels, fostering soil biological activity and careful mechanical intervention;

Providing crop nutrients indirectly by using relatively insoluble nutrient sources which are made available to the plant by the action of soil microorganisms;

Nitrogen self-sufficiency through the use of legumes and biological nitrogen fixation, as well as effective recycling of organic materials including crop residues and livestock wastes;

Weed, disease and pest control relying primarily on crop rotations, natural predators, diversity, organic manuring, resistant varieties and limited (preferably minimal) thermal, biological and chemical intervention;

The extensive management of livestock, paying full regard to their evolutionary adaptations, behavioral needs and animal welfare issues with respect to nutrition, housing, health, breeding and rearing;

Careful attention to the impact of the farming system on the wider environment and the conservation of wildlife and natural habitats.