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Soil Health & Agricultural Productivity in Punjab: Economic Implications of Chemical Intensive Agriculture
Sukhwinder Singh
Punjab occupies an envious place in India's agricultural economy. In terms of total foodgrain production in India, the state ranked 2nd (UP ranked 1st) with just 3 per cent of India's total agricultural area. It alone produced about 20 per cent of wheat, 10 per cent of rice, and 21 per cent of cotton production in the country. Per hectare production of wheat and rice in the state has multiplied appreciably upto the mid-1980s and after that, it rose either at a very low rate or stagnated. Introduction of Bt cotton seed has led to revival of cotton cultivation and raised the hopes of the cotton growers in the state. Moreover, the state has acquired the status of India's food basket by contributing more than 36 per cent rice and 55 per cent of wheat to the central pool.
Since the late sixties with the advent of Green Revolution, Punjab agriculture has been transformed itself and become highly capital-intensive, energy-intensive and input-intensive. The state seems to acquire complete specialization in the wheat-rice production. The cropping intensity has increased from 126 percent in 1960-61 to 140 per cent in 1970-71 to 189 per cent in 2004-05. The net cultivated area as percentage of the geographical area rose from 80 per cent in 1970-71 to 85 per cent in 2004-05. The area under irrigated increased to from 71 per cent in 1970-71 to 96 per cent in 2004-05 of which about 55 per cent (1970-71) and 74 per cent (2004-05) were irrigated exclusively by the tubewells.
Truly, the central and state level policies like minimum support price, effective procurement of selected crops, subsidized inputs (electricity, fertilizers, etc.) and widespread credit facilities over the years have played the most significant role in influencing the farmers to adopt given cropping pattern (wheat-paddy), capital-intensive technology (mechanization) , and intensive usages of large variety of chemical inputs. Further, free electricity and canal water to the farmers have resulted in excessive use of underground and river water resources towards cultivation of water-guzzler crops like paddy. The mono-cropping pattern and fertilizer subsidies encouraged the farmers to apply increased dozes of nitrogen fertilizers, less of other fertilizers and loss of micronutrients like zinc, iron, sulphur, etc which, in tern, had adversely affected the soil quality over time, apart from causing environment pollution.
The excessive and indiscriminate use of agro-chemicals in the various forms (fertilizers, insecticides, weedicides, fungicides, etc.) has enhanced the toxic content in the soil and consequently has entered into the food chain. It has affected the health of people in a big way. New weeds and insects/pests have emerged which are resistance to the prevailing insecticides/pesticides.
The widely held view is that the intensive agriculture in the state has seriously eroded its soil fertility levels. The over-exploitation of under groundwater has resulted in a sharp decline in the water table in the state and, in near future, it will render a sizeable area less productive, because of salinization of upper layer soil. The salts have accumulated on the surface of soil, particularly in the South-Western part of Punjab. The burning of crop residues of paddy and wheat has become a big environmental burden and it affects the organic carbon content of the soil, which is necessary to maintain the natural biological activity of the soil.
The chemical nutrient application in Punjab agriculture is the highest in the country. For instance, the application of chemical fertilizers was worked out to be at 256 kg per hectare in the state. Wheat and rice are the most nutrient exploiting crops of the state, accounting for 80 per cent of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potash, 80 per cent of Sulphur and 77 per cent of Zinc of the total removal of nutrients from the soil by the growth of these crops. In many areas of the state, nitrogen application was higher than the recommended doses, especially in the wheat and rice crops.
Moreover, by taking into account water requirement of HYVs of major crops, the available canal water is insufficient and for irrigation, farmers are heavily dependent on pumping out of groundwater in the state. The indiscriminate use of groundwater not only created salt affected soils, but also led to considerable depletion of the scarce resource. It is held that water table in 90 per cent of area in Punjab has fallen beyond 10m, which is the critical level of groundwater extraction with the centrifugal technology. And, the farmers have to energize submersible pumps to extract water from the deep crust of soil. There are now 2.5 lakh submersible tubewells, out of about ten lakh overall tubewells, pumping water from deep aquifer. In the coming years, farmers in the state have to invest in a big way for the up-gradation of irrigation technology.
It is to be noted that the method of irrigation in the state remained traditional i.e. open flooding of fields with water. It is considered as the least efficient method which results in large wastage of water by deep seepage and evaporation. The sprinkler and drip irrigation system of irrigation has not picked up in the state because of heavy investment and general suitability to the existing cropping system. The over-exploitation of soil-resources has been posing a big threat to the sustainability and economic viability of the agriculture in the state.
Thus, soil degradation, over exploitation of water and environment pollution has been the biggest threats to the future agriculture production system in the state. In fact, the state is facing a very serious ecological and agrarian crisis of its specific type which, in tern, has many serious social, economic, and ecological implications for the overall economy of the state and food security of the country.
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