Why in News?
For reducing the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture, Government of India (GoI) is promoting the balanced and judicious use of fertilizers based on soil test based recommendations in conjunction with organic fertilizer and bio-fertilizers.
 
Context: 
Organic Farming is an agricultural system that uses organic fertilizers such as green manure, compost manure, bone meal, etc., and gives emphasis on the techniques such as companion planting and crop rotation.
Under organic schemes of Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY), Namami Gange, Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP), Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North- Eastern Region (MOVCDNER), National Project on Organic Farming (NPOF) etc., farmers are provided assistance for use of organic and bio-fertilizers. Further, National Centre for Organic Farming (NCOF) is involved in awareness generation & training activities for promotion of organic farming.
Among all the schemes, PM-PRANAM that is “PM Programme for Restoration, Awareness Generation, Nourishment, and Amelioration of Mother-Earth” is very crucial. 
 
Objectives: 
To encourage the balanced use of fertilisers in conjunction with biofertilisers and organic fertilisers.

Aim:  
To bring down the subsidy burden on chemical fertilisers, which is estimated to reach Rs 2.25 lakh crore in 2022-23 — 39% higher than 2021 figure of Rs 1.62 lakh crore.
 
Features of the Scheme: 
·         The scheme will have no separate budget and will be financed through the “savings of existing fertiliser subsidy” under schemes run by the Department of Fertilizers.
·         50% of subsidy savings will be passed on as a grant to the state that saves the money.
·         70% of the grant provided under the scheme can be used for asset creation related to the technological adoption of alternate fertilisers and alternate fertiliser production units at the village, block and district levels.
·         The remaining 30% grant money can be used for rewarding and encouraging farmers, panchayats, farmer producer organisations and self-help groups that are involved in the reduction of fertiliser use and awareness generation.
·         The calculation of reducing chemical fertiliser use of urea in a year will be compared to the average consumption of urea during the last three years.
·         For this purpose, data available on a Fertilizer Ministry dashboard, IFMS (Integrated Fertilizers Management System) will be used.
 
Present Scenario of Fertilizer Usage in India: 
·         The expenditure on fertiliser subsidy was 1.62 lakh crore in 2020-21 and could cross Rs 2.25 lakh crore during 2022.
·         The total requirement of four fertilisers — Urea, DAP (Di-ammonium Phosphate), MOP (Muriate of potash), NPKS (Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium) — in the country increased by 21% to 640.27 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in 2021-22 from 528.86 lakh metric tonnes in 2017-18.
·         The maximum increase — 25.44% — has been recorded in the requirement of DAP. It went up from 98.77 LMT in 2017-18 to 123.9 LMT in 2021-22.
·         Urea, the most used chemical fertiliser in the country, recorded an increase of 19.64 per cent — from 298 LMT in 2017-18 to 356.53 in 2021-22 — in the last five years.

Need for this Scheme:
  
Subsidy Burden on Government:  
·         Farmers buy fertilisers at Maximum Retail Prices (MRP) below their normal supply-and-demand-based market rates or what it costs to produce/import them.
·         For example, the MRP of neem-coated urea is fixed by the government at Rs. 5,922.22 per tonne, whereas its average cost-plus price payable to domestic manufacturers and importers comes to around Rs. 17,000 and Rs. 23,000 per tonne, respectively.
·         The difference, which varies according to plant-wise production cost and import price, is footed by the Centre as a subsidy, which goes to the companies.
·         The MRPs of non-urea fertilisers are decontrolled or fixed by the companies. However, the Centre pays a flat per-tonne subsidy on these nutrients to ensure reasonable prices.
·         The per-tonne subsidy ranges from Rs. 10,231 to Rs. 24,000 for different types of fertilisers.
·         The Centre pays subsidy on urea to fertiliser manufacturers on the basis of cost of production at each plant and the units are required to sell the fertiliser at the government-set Maximum Retail Price (MRP).

Other Related Initiatives taken by the government:
  
Direct Benefit Transfer: The Centre introduced a Direct Benefit Transfer system in fertilizers with effect from October 2016 under which a 100% subsidy on various fertiliser grades is released to the fertiliser companies on the basis of actual sales made by the retailers to the beneficiaries.
  
Incorporation of new Nutrients: The government had incorporated new nutrients like Nano urea and “bio-stimulants” in the Fertilizer Control Order-1985 (FCO).
  
Neem Coating of Urea:   
The Department of Fertilizers (DoF) has made it mandatory for all the domestic producers to produce 100% urea as Neem Coated Urea (NCU).
 
The benefits of use of NCU are as under:- 
·         Improvement in soil health.
·         Reduction in usage of plant protection chemicals.
·         Reduction in pest and disease attack.
·         An increase in yield of paddy, sugarcane, maize, soybean, Tur/Red Gram.
 
New Urea Policy (NUP) 2015: Objectives of the policy are- 
·         To maximize indigenous urea production.
·         To promote energy efficiency in the urea units.
·         To rationalize the subsidy burden on the Government of India.
 
Use of Space Technology in Fertilizer Sector: DoF commissioned a three-year Pilot Study on “Resource Mapping of Rock Phosphate using Reflectance Spectroscopy and Earth Observations Data” by National Remote Sensing Centre under ISRO, in collaboration with Geological. 
CCEA recently has approved the Market Development Assistance (MDA) @ Rs. 1500/MT to promote organic fertilizers, i.e.  
Manure produced at plants under GOBARdhan initiative covering different Biogas support schemes of stakeholder Ministries/Departments such as:
·         Sustainable Alternative towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme of MoPNG
·         ‘Waste to Energy’ programme of MNRE
·         Swachh Bharat Mission (Rural) of DDWS 
 With total outlay of Rs. 1451.84 Crore (FY 2023-24 to 2025-26), which includes a corpus of Rs. 360 crore for research gap funding, etc.

Nano Urea:  
Nano-urea can be used as foliar spray for top-dressing instead of conventional urea.  In addition, foliar application of Nano urea along with basal application of recommended dose of conventional urea has yield advantage over conventional fertilizer application.

Benefits of Nano-Urea:
  
Higher Efficiency:  
·         While conventional urea has an efficiency of about 25%, the efficiency of liquid nano urea can be as high as 85-90 %.
·         Conventional urea fails to have the desired impact on crops as it is often applied incorrectly, and the nitrogen in it is vaporised or lost as gas. A lot of nitrogen is also washed away during irrigation.

Targeted Supply of Nutrients to Crops:  
·         Liquid nano urea is sprayed directly on the leaves and gets absorbed by the plant.
·         Fertilisers in nano form provide a targeted supply of nutrients to crops, as they are absorbed by the stomata, pores found on the epidermis of leaves.
 
Economical: 
·         A bottle of the nano urea can effectively replace at least one bag of urea.
·         The liquid nano urea comes in a half-litre bottle priced at Rs 240, and carries no burden of subsidy currently.
·         By contrast, a farmer pays around Rs 300 for a 50-kg bag of heavily subsidized urea.

Mains Question:
  Q: Considering the long-term interests of agriculture and the effects of using inorganic fertilizers, Examine the need to shift to Organic Farming?