Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Narendra Singh Tomar reiterated Government commitment on encouraging use of Bio-Fertilizers over Chemical Fertilizers in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.
Government of India has been encouraging the use of bio fertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers through State Governments under various schemes and programmes, said the Minister.
Listing some of them Tomar said Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana, Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region, National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm , National Food Security Mission are some of them.
ICAR under “Network project on soil biodiversity- bio fertilizers” has developed improved and efficient strains of biofertilizers specific to different crops and soil type, he asserted.
Tomar also informed the House that the ICAR study indicates that biofertilizers can improve crop yields by 10-25% and supplement costly chemical fertilizer (N, P) by nearly 20-25% in most of the cases when used along with the chemical fertilizers. Bihar Agriculture University, Bihar and KVKs including KVK Gopalganj are engaged in study on the impact of usage of bio-fertilizers, he added.
Listing the steps taken by govt for promotion of biofertilizers Minister said assistance of Rs 50,000 per hectare/ 3 years is given, out of which Rs. 31,000 (62%) is provided to the farmers directly through DBT, for inputs (bio-fertilizers, biopesticides, vermicompost, botanical extracts etc) production/ procurement, post harvest management etc
In Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region, farmers are given assistance of Rs25000/ ha/ 3 years for both on farm & off-farm organic inputs, and seeds/ planting material.
Under National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm financial assistance@ 50% subsidy to the tune of Rs. 300/- per ha is being provided for different components including bio-fertilizers, supply of Rhizobium culture/Phosphate Solubilising Bacteria (PSB)/ Zinc Solubilising Bacteria(ZSB)/ Azatobacter/ Mycorrhiza and vermi compost
Under NFSM, financial assistance is provided for promotion of Bio-Fertilizer (Rhizobium/ PSB) @50% of the cost limited to Rs.300 per ha
Tomar also said one acre Integrated Organic Farming System (IOFS) models suitable for marginal farmers have been established in Kerala, Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu which provides scope to generate more than 80 % of inputs required for organic farming within the farm, thus reducing the cost of production.