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A 360 degree approach to both farming systems
A coin has two sides to it, we always hear one side of the story and believe it to be the fact. But digging deep into the problem we understand the issues in a broader and clearer perspective. In that effort, here we have tried to understand the pros and cons of chemical vs organic farming through this insightful discussion with Mr. Gopalakrishnan Penmutch- Chairman and Business Unit Head - Coromandel SQM India. Mr. Gopala Krishnan, holds management degree from IIM and Harvard, has been in this industry for over two decades. He brings his industrial experiences and expertise to make it an interesting and informative brainstorming session. Excerpts:
Mr. Gopala Krishnan
Before we jump into the debate, let us try to understand the basics of plant nutrition and fertilizer industry in general on a bird’s eye view.
Plant Nutrition: Plants require 16 different types of nutrients out of which two primary nutrients are carbon and water. NPK (Nitrogen- Phosphorous- Potassium) is next primary nutrient requirement of the plant. Secondary nutrients are sulphur, calcium, magnesium and other micronutrients like zinc, iron, vitamins, boron etc that helps the growth and health of the plant. These requirements can be either fulfilled by natural / artificial fertilizers along with biological agents.
Fertilizer Industry:
Bio-fertilizers are live organisms of bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms such as aceto-bacter, aspergillus etc that are useful to plants. These organisms breaking down the organic matter to simple form of nutrients which plants can easily absorb.
Organic fertilizers are primarily the city or rural green waste (poultry, dairy and crop remains) that is composted and converted to form organic matter.Traditionally it is called the farmyard manure.
Chemical fertilizers are artificially manufactured by using inorganic mineral ores mined from earth. They can be further classified based on the plant nutrient requirement/consumption.
Nitrogen based urea – major consumption about 40-50% of total chemical fertilizers
- Phosphatic fertilizers - about 35% (second major compound)
· Derivatives of potash
· Secondary minerals such as sulphur, calcium,magnesium
· Micronutrient- such as zinc, iron, boron
Supply of urea is primarily dominated by public sector companies like IFFCO, National fertilizers limited etc. Phosphatic fertilizers are largely imported, packed or mixed and sold by private players (large and small companies)
Speciality fertilizers are micronutrients supplied primarily by small companies. The new emerging market for water soluble fertilizers is growing at faster pace which has low volume high efficiency advantage applied in precision farming through drip and sprinkler irrigation.
Comparison
Organic and chemical farming process are compared from all aspects.
Demand/ Supply:
Currently, the demand for agricultural input is primarily met through chemical fertilizers (which is further highly dependent on imports) to meet the growing demand of food for the ever growing population of the country.
Fertilizer industry and growth in food productivity goes hand in hand. During early 19th century India was importing food crops and fertilizer manufacturing was not even in its early stages of adoption. It took 40-50 years for one such fertilizer plant to reach its capacity of 1 lakh ton production.
But now, we are almost self sufficient with food crops though we import some. Our knowledge & technology also has developed to large extent in manufacturing chemical fertilizers. Urea is consumed at 2.4 lakh tons out of which 85-90 lakh tons are imported. Rest is manufactured in India. Phosphatic fertilizers are consumed about 100-170 lakh tons of which 90% are imported from North African, Russian countries which are rich in rock phosphate reserves.
In comparison to this organic fertilizers are in very limited supply and presumably accounts to <3 lakh ton quantity. Since source of organic fertilizers are primarily natural resources and they are in limited availability.
50 years back, organic manure is sourced only from farmers own crop/animal waste but now technology has improved and a new way called “ green manure” is used. Green manure are certain crops that are grown only to cut and put it back as manure to nourish other food crops. It has been predominantly practiced in states like Punjab and Haryana and in South India has not seen much focus. But with all these still the supply cannot meet the huge demand.
Bio-fertilizers on the other hand has its own limitations like expertise, supply and infrastructure to store the organisms from heat/light. These innovations have come only to supplement the increasing demand of agro-inputs but cannot replace the chemical production.
There is no clear statistical evidence to prove, but as a calculated assumption organic and bio fertilizers may constitute <10% of total fertilizer consumption. They can only supplement the requirement but cannot replace chemical fertilizers.
The key problem: The huge demand/in-adequate or uneven supply of organic nutrients which makes the use of chemical fertilizer compulsory at this moment.
Eliminating / drastically reducing the use of required/recommended amount of chemical fertilizers may reduce the food productivity to half. This will in turn affect the GDP (Where agriculture constitutes 16% of it) and we may start importing food crops that will again force the country to shell out more forex that will affect the overall growth and countries economy.
Nutrition:
Bio fertilizers enable plants to absorb nutrients from the organic matter in the soil. But it doesn’t have any nutrition in itself.
Natural grown crops are far safer, healthier and tastier than chemical grown crops only if the natural fertilizers provide all the essential nutrients in the right quantity and quality.But in general it constitute only 4-6 essential nutrients.
Forest have very rich organic reserves and can grow 100% naturally with their own regenerative mechanism. The food is healthier and tastier. But agriculture and cultivation needs human intervention like ploughing, sowing different crops etc. Any human intervention cannot prove/ guarantee 100% organic output. As the soil may be deficient in some or more nutrients.
Every five to ten years government warns with one more nutrition getting deficient from the food. In that list we already have sulphur, calcium, zinc, magnesium, boron, iron. Zinc is uniformly deficient across crops.
Deficiency can affect plant growth and nutrient and the same deficiency is carried to primary consumers such as humans and animals causing more diseases, poor immune system and growth retardation in children.
So even in application of organic fertilizer, a thorough study of the soil/ water and the crop is required to understand what the soil possess and what it requires more.
In chemical farming the problem is with the imbalanced use or abuse of fertilizers. Farmers are either not aware what their soil or crop demands or they fall in favor of low cost fertilizers which in turn causes imbalance in utilization.
For. Eg. Rice demands NPK in 4: 2: 1 ration but study shows its administered in 7.5:2:1 ration. Urea (nitrogen) being the cheapest fertilizer is bought more by the farmers and other nutrients get comparatively less or no focus.
Plant nutritional requirement varies from crop to crop, soil to soil, time to time and season to season.
In western countries, farmers are educated appropriately and they analyse the soil, water, crop and climate with the help of technology & tools before they apply fertilizer. Their yield is 50-60% more for the same piece of land and a balanced nutrition. The mixing of chemicals and nutrients happens in their land itself.
But in India awareness is less on the importance of analyzing one’s field. When you ask a farmer he would say he added 2 bags of urea, 1 bag of DAP, 1 bag of potash irrespective of the soil, crop & climate.
Key problem: Going organic/chemical in a blind folded approach uproots the underlying problem i.e nutrition deficiency which can go unnoticed. Organic may not harm the environment directly but indirectly by being deficient in providing the required nutrients.
On the other hand inadequate knowledge or uneven distribution of cost in chemicals will push farmers to favor one nutrient and leave out the other essential components.
ARTICLE CONTINUED - PART II
http://www.agricultureinformation.com/discuss/threads/the-debate-organic-vs-chemical-farming-part-2.6770/
A coin has two sides to it, we always hear one side of the story and believe it to be the fact. But digging deep into the problem we understand the issues in a broader and clearer perspective. In that effort, here we have tried to understand the pros and cons of chemical vs organic farming through this insightful discussion with Mr. Gopalakrishnan Penmutch- Chairman and Business Unit Head - Coromandel SQM India. Mr. Gopala Krishnan, holds management degree from IIM and Harvard, has been in this industry for over two decades. He brings his industrial experiences and expertise to make it an interesting and informative brainstorming session. Excerpts:
Mr. Gopala Krishnan
Before we jump into the debate, let us try to understand the basics of plant nutrition and fertilizer industry in general on a bird’s eye view.
Plant Nutrition: Plants require 16 different types of nutrients out of which two primary nutrients are carbon and water. NPK (Nitrogen- Phosphorous- Potassium) is next primary nutrient requirement of the plant. Secondary nutrients are sulphur, calcium, magnesium and other micronutrients like zinc, iron, vitamins, boron etc that helps the growth and health of the plant. These requirements can be either fulfilled by natural / artificial fertilizers along with biological agents.
Fertilizer Industry:
Bio-fertilizers are live organisms of bacteria, fungi and other micro-organisms such as aceto-bacter, aspergillus etc that are useful to plants. These organisms breaking down the organic matter to simple form of nutrients which plants can easily absorb.
Organic fertilizers are primarily the city or rural green waste (poultry, dairy and crop remains) that is composted and converted to form organic matter.Traditionally it is called the farmyard manure.
Chemical fertilizers are artificially manufactured by using inorganic mineral ores mined from earth. They can be further classified based on the plant nutrient requirement/consumption.
Nitrogen based urea – major consumption about 40-50% of total chemical fertilizers
- Phosphatic fertilizers - about 35% (second major compound)
· Derivatives of potash
· Secondary minerals such as sulphur, calcium,magnesium
· Micronutrient- such as zinc, iron, boron
Supply of urea is primarily dominated by public sector companies like IFFCO, National fertilizers limited etc. Phosphatic fertilizers are largely imported, packed or mixed and sold by private players (large and small companies)
Speciality fertilizers are micronutrients supplied primarily by small companies. The new emerging market for water soluble fertilizers is growing at faster pace which has low volume high efficiency advantage applied in precision farming through drip and sprinkler irrigation.
Comparison
Organic and chemical farming process are compared from all aspects.
Demand/ Supply:
Currently, the demand for agricultural input is primarily met through chemical fertilizers (which is further highly dependent on imports) to meet the growing demand of food for the ever growing population of the country.
Fertilizer industry and growth in food productivity goes hand in hand. During early 19th century India was importing food crops and fertilizer manufacturing was not even in its early stages of adoption. It took 40-50 years for one such fertilizer plant to reach its capacity of 1 lakh ton production.
But now, we are almost self sufficient with food crops though we import some. Our knowledge & technology also has developed to large extent in manufacturing chemical fertilizers. Urea is consumed at 2.4 lakh tons out of which 85-90 lakh tons are imported. Rest is manufactured in India. Phosphatic fertilizers are consumed about 100-170 lakh tons of which 90% are imported from North African, Russian countries which are rich in rock phosphate reserves.
In comparison to this organic fertilizers are in very limited supply and presumably accounts to <3 lakh ton quantity. Since source of organic fertilizers are primarily natural resources and they are in limited availability.
50 years back, organic manure is sourced only from farmers own crop/animal waste but now technology has improved and a new way called “ green manure” is used. Green manure are certain crops that are grown only to cut and put it back as manure to nourish other food crops. It has been predominantly practiced in states like Punjab and Haryana and in South India has not seen much focus. But with all these still the supply cannot meet the huge demand.
Bio-fertilizers on the other hand has its own limitations like expertise, supply and infrastructure to store the organisms from heat/light. These innovations have come only to supplement the increasing demand of agro-inputs but cannot replace the chemical production.
There is no clear statistical evidence to prove, but as a calculated assumption organic and bio fertilizers may constitute <10% of total fertilizer consumption. They can only supplement the requirement but cannot replace chemical fertilizers.
The key problem: The huge demand/in-adequate or uneven supply of organic nutrients which makes the use of chemical fertilizer compulsory at this moment.
Eliminating / drastically reducing the use of required/recommended amount of chemical fertilizers may reduce the food productivity to half. This will in turn affect the GDP (Where agriculture constitutes 16% of it) and we may start importing food crops that will again force the country to shell out more forex that will affect the overall growth and countries economy.
Nutrition:
Bio fertilizers enable plants to absorb nutrients from the organic matter in the soil. But it doesn’t have any nutrition in itself.
Natural grown crops are far safer, healthier and tastier than chemical grown crops only if the natural fertilizers provide all the essential nutrients in the right quantity and quality.But in general it constitute only 4-6 essential nutrients.
Forest have very rich organic reserves and can grow 100% naturally with their own regenerative mechanism. The food is healthier and tastier. But agriculture and cultivation needs human intervention like ploughing, sowing different crops etc. Any human intervention cannot prove/ guarantee 100% organic output. As the soil may be deficient in some or more nutrients.
Every five to ten years government warns with one more nutrition getting deficient from the food. In that list we already have sulphur, calcium, zinc, magnesium, boron, iron. Zinc is uniformly deficient across crops.
Deficiency can affect plant growth and nutrient and the same deficiency is carried to primary consumers such as humans and animals causing more diseases, poor immune system and growth retardation in children.
So even in application of organic fertilizer, a thorough study of the soil/ water and the crop is required to understand what the soil possess and what it requires more.
In chemical farming the problem is with the imbalanced use or abuse of fertilizers. Farmers are either not aware what their soil or crop demands or they fall in favor of low cost fertilizers which in turn causes imbalance in utilization.
For. Eg. Rice demands NPK in 4: 2: 1 ration but study shows its administered in 7.5:2:1 ration. Urea (nitrogen) being the cheapest fertilizer is bought more by the farmers and other nutrients get comparatively less or no focus.
Plant nutritional requirement varies from crop to crop, soil to soil, time to time and season to season.
In western countries, farmers are educated appropriately and they analyse the soil, water, crop and climate with the help of technology & tools before they apply fertilizer. Their yield is 50-60% more for the same piece of land and a balanced nutrition. The mixing of chemicals and nutrients happens in their land itself.
But in India awareness is less on the importance of analyzing one’s field. When you ask a farmer he would say he added 2 bags of urea, 1 bag of DAP, 1 bag of potash irrespective of the soil, crop & climate.
Key problem: Going organic/chemical in a blind folded approach uproots the underlying problem i.e nutrition deficiency which can go unnoticed. Organic may not harm the environment directly but indirectly by being deficient in providing the required nutrients.
On the other hand inadequate knowledge or uneven distribution of cost in chemicals will push farmers to favor one nutrient and leave out the other essential components.
ARTICLE CONTINUED - PART II
http://www.agricultureinformation.com/discuss/threads/the-debate-organic-vs-chemical-farming-part-2.6770/
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