Integrating organic and biological inputs vital to reduce chemical dependency and promote environmental sustainability

Among many important questions, the question of food and nutritional security is the most important one. Availability of food alone is not enough, but access to safe and nutritionally rich food is also important. Talking about India, the country has made reasonably good progress in achieving food security. It has seen a huge transformation from the situation of hand-to-mouth to food security. The Green Revolution witnessed tremendous increases in food production, feeding millions at risk of starvation.
In a country with 58% of its rural households dependent on agriculture, farming, of course, is and will continue to be a major sector of development. To sustain food production for the ever-increasing population, especially under a shrinking natural resource base, is indeed a big challenge. To meet this challenge, one important area of action would be the promotion of organic and biological inputs in farming across different ecologies in the country.
Indiscriminate use of agrochemicals has been a serious issue, deteriorating soil health and negatively impacting our ecology, environment, and health. Taking all these issues into consideration, it is really important that solely chemical-based agriculture must shift to evergreen agriculture, where biological and organic sources are integrated to sustain soil health and improve crop production, ecology, and the environment.
Here in the Kashmir valley, rice and apple are two major crops occupying reasonably good acreage. Fortunately, the technologies developed by SKUAST-Kashmir in rice have helped reduce the chemical load in the soil and environment. The varieties developed by MRCFC-SKUAST, Kashmir show a high level of tolerance to diseases, and pest incidence is also very low in these varieties. As such, there is no major use of pesticides in this crop. Farmers are encouraged to use on-farm resources like farmyard manure (FYM), compost, and other organic inputs to improve soil health, fertility, and crop productivity. A good number of farmers adopt it in the case of rice farming. The issue, however, remains in the other major crop, which is apple.
Rapidly increasing apple mono-cropping and changing climatic conditions are impacting pest dynamics, and over the past few years, secondary pests have emerged as primary, and some invasive pests like leaf miners are posing serious challenges. In this scenario, it is important that the advisories and technical inputs issued by the SKUAST-Kashmir are followed. The role of organic and biological inputs in apple farming is also vital to avoid serious health and environmental issues. Realizing this, SKUAST-Kashmir has been carrying out research on these inputs, and based on the results, organic and biological inputs are mentioned in the spray schedule and package of practice.
Due to concerted efforts of the Agriculture University, the use of pheromone traps is also gaining popularity among farmers. Many bioformulations/biopesticides are used by farmers across the country as a component of integrated disease and pest management. Keeping in view the importance of bioformulations, SKUAST-K has also taken the initiative to develop a low-cost Trichoderma stock culture based on region-specific bio-control agents and their mass multiplication on cow-dung-based carriers for the management of the root rot of apples.
In the experiments conducted by the scientists, around 38% of root rot-affected apple plants were recovered by the above technology. The Trichoderma bio-formulations are being developed on a large scale at the Mountain Research Center for Field Crops (MRCFC)-Khudwani, not only for the management of root rot of fruit crops but also for other soil-borne pathogens related to field crops. The centre has also conducted skill development programs with the aim of training local youth in developing Trichoderma bioformulations under a recently concluded project from the Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi.
Seven trained youths have successfully established low-cost small-scale Trichoderma production units for the management of soil-borne pathogens, and hopefully, more and more applications of bio-agents can be seen in the near future. This is important to cut down the load of chemicals in the environment and help in attaining sustainability in agriculture. For further information on organic and biological agricultural inputs, farmers are encouraged to visit the Mountain Research Center for Field Crops or Krishi Vigyan Kendras situated in their respective districts.
Dr Tasneem Mubarak is Chief Scientist, Agronomy, MRCFC-Khudwani, SKUAST-Kashmir
Dr Fayaz A Mohiddin is a Senior Scientist, Plant Pathology, MRCFC-Khudwani, SKUAST-Kashmir
Dr. Najeeb-Ul-Rehman Sofi is Associate Director Research, MRCFC-Khudwani, SKUAST-Kashmir
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Dr Tasneem Mubarak, Dr Fayaz A Mohiddin and Dr Najeeb-ur-Rehman Sofi