Indian farming sector has witnessed enhance in the subsidyand import of fertilisers in the very last 3 decades.
In a reply in Lok Sabha on Tuesday, Mansukh Mandaviya, Union Minister for Chemical compounds and Fertilisers, claimed the total volume of subsidy disbursed on fertilisers improved to ₹1.31 lakh crore in 2020-21 towards ₹83,467 crore in 2019-20. It was at ₹73,435 crore in 2018-19.
Import of urea improved to ninety eight.28 lakh tonnes (lt) in 2020-21 from ninety one.23 lt in 2019-20 and 74.eighty one lt in 2018-19.
The import of NPK improved to 13.90 lt in 2020-21 towards 7.46 lt in 2019-20 and 5.46 lt in 2018-19.
All through 2020-21, the import of MOP and DAP improved to 42.27 lt (36.70 lt in 2019-20), and 48.82 lt (48.70 lt), respectively.
Use of bio-fertilisers
To a independent question on the use of bio-fertilisers and pesticides, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, claimed bio-fertilisers are promoted as a result of built-in nutrient management and are designed integral part of package of practices created by ICAR and condition agriculture universities.
The consumption of chemical pesticides improved from fifty nine,699 tonnes in 2018-19 to sixty one,701 tonnes in 2019-20, and to 62,192 tonnes in 2020-21.
To a question on the problems of existence of harmful chemicals in food products, Tomar claimed the Food Security and Regular Authority of India (FSSAI) has set the Greatest Residue Limits (MRLs) for different pesticides, antibiotics, and so forth in food commodities less than Food Security and Specifications (Contaminants, Toxic compounds and Residues) Regulations 2011, which are reviewed from time to time.
Further more, samples of vegetables, fruits and other crops are gathered from the retail retailers, markets, farm gate, and so forth less than a central sector plan — ‘Monitoring of Pesticide Residues at Countrywide Level’ — and analysed for pesticide residues.
From the examination of a total of 1,seventy two,437 samples of different food commodities through April 2014 to March 2021, residues were found exceeding previously mentioned MRLs in four,680 (two.7 for every cent) samples. Studies of this sort of occasions were shared with involved Condition governments to take proper legal and corrective steps as for every the provisions of the Insecticides Act 1968, he claimed.