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The Importance of Natural Manure – Land Has Lost Its Fertility

Land Has Lost Its Fertility

If the nutritional elements from soil which are consumed by crops are not replenished after each crop season, the soil loses its fertility gradually.

The food grains grown on such soil become nutritionally poorer and eventually the land becomes barren and gets transformed into a wasteland.

Table 1.3 shows the quantum of nutritional elements absorbed by crops from the soil, indicated as per acre consumption.

TABLE 1.3: The quantities of plant nutrients removed from soil by different crops (kg./ha)

CROP	Yield (grain) kg/ha	Nitrogen (N)	Phosphoric	Potassium
Rice	2240	34	22	67
Wheat	1568	56	24	67
Jowar	1792	56	15	146
Bajra	1120	36	22	66
Maize	2016	36	20	39
Barley	1120	41	20	35
Sugar cane	67200	90	17	202
Groundnut	1904	78	22	45

(“Handbook of agriculture” (1987) pp.213 Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR))

To replenish such nutrients consumed by crops from the soil, cattle dung or organic manure, is the best, cheapest, harmless and most easily available manure.

Now, let us have a look at nutrients contained in dung and urine of different animals which help in restoring fertility to the soil. The following table indicates the contents of some of the basic nutrients of dung manure.

Table 1.4 The average nutrient contents of manure

TYPE OF MANURE	% Nitrogen (N)		% Phosphoric acid (P2O5)	% Potash
Dung of cow/buffalo	0.3 -0.4	0.1 -0.2		0.1 -0.3
Horse dung	0.4 -0.5	0.3 -0.4		0.3 -0.4
Dung of sheep and goat	0.5 -0.7	0.4 -0.6		0.3 -1.0
Cow/buffalo urine	0.9 -1.2	NIL		0.5 -1.0
Horse urine	1.2 -1.5	NIL		1.3 -1.5
Sheep/goat urine	1.5 -1.7	NIL		1.8 -2.0
Dry compost manure	0.7 -2.0	0.9 -3. 0		1.0 -2. 0
Waste from stable cows/buffalos or horses	0.4 -1.5	0.3 -0.9		0.6 -1.9

(“Handbook of Agriculture” (1987) pp. 215, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR))

Thus, if soil has to be prevented from becoming barren, it is necessary to apply 10 bullock-cart loads or 5 tonnes of dung manure for each acre of land. The remaining shortfall in maintaining fertility of soil is made up by dung and urine of sheep and goats which wander on farms everywhere.

The Indian council of Agricultural Research has found by experiments that if the farms are properly ploughed and if 5 tonnes of dung manure is used for each acre, then our agricultural land is capable of giving the following yields of crops per acre:

TABLE 1.5: Yields of different food crops in soil enriched by optimum levels of bovine dung.

Food grain	yield (lbs)	yield (kg)
Rice	2000	900
Wheat	1400	630
Jowar	1600	720
Bajra	1000	450
Maize	1800	850
Barley	1000	450
Sugar cane	60000	27000
Groundnut	1700	765

(Handbook of Agriculture (1969) (ICAR) pp.103)

However, when sufficient natural manure is not available, the productivity of crops per acre get reduced as indicated by the following table.

TABLE 1.6- Yields of different food crops grown on soil with suboptimum levels of cow dung inputs.

Food grain	yield (lbs)		yield (kgs)
Rice		962	433
Wheat		1277	575
Jowar		611	275
Bajra		380	152
Barley		833	375
Maize		862	338
Sugar cane		45000	20000
Groundnut		709	319

Let us have a look at two other proofs which indicate the importance of natural manure.

In a book titled “Cow in India” by Dr. Satishchandra Dasgupta, on page 43 and 562 the following indication about utility of natural manure can be found. In three farms of equal sizes, the first farm was covered with 2 1/2 ” thick layer of natural manure and was cultivated. In the second farm, the layer was only 1/2″ thick and in the third farm, no natural manure was used. The results were as under:

TABLE 1.7

YIELD
	Rice (lbs)	Grass (bundles)
First farm	422	138
Second farm	236	106
Third farm	60	40

The above results make it clear that the yield in the first farm was 6 and 31/2 times greater for rice and grass compared to the third farm which was without any natural manure.

In another example in the government dairy on Telan Kheri when cow and bullock dung were used as manure on the farm, the annual yield of crop increased significantly with this practice. (refer Table 1.8)

TABLE 1.8- Cumulative increase in yields of crop and grass grown on soil enriched by bovine dung.

YIELD
YEAR	Grass (mounds)	Crop (mounds)
1932-33	12,595	219
1933-34	12,694	506
1934-35	18,028	350
1935-36	15,148	529
1936-37	18,272	634
1937-38	19,473	610

(Report of Industrial Survey committee, Volume II)

Is not the use of natural manure astonishing? In 6 years, food grain production went up by 178.5% and that of grass by 54.5%! Can chemical fertilizers do this without adversely affecting the capability and fertility of land?

Why then are people burdened with huge capital expenses in setting up chemical fertilizer plants?

Indian agriculture is burdened by more than Rs 1,500 crores as additional costs every year.

The subsidy provided by government, of this additional burden is Rs 400 crores, which the government collects from people by way of taxes.

The remaining Rs 1100 crores is recovered by the farmer by increasing the price of food grains.

Thus, the poor population which consumes the food grains produced with use of chemical fertilizers, is crushed between the farmer on one hand, and government on the other.

The high prices of food grains are the root cause of ever increasing inflation in our economy.

(Note: The above figures of subsidy quoted by the author, though looked worrisome in the eighties, are peanuts compared to the subsidy burden in the nineties as indicated by following figures.)

TABLE 1.9- Subsidies provided in the Central budget from 1990-91 to 1997-98 (Rs in crores)

Particulars	90 -91	91-92	92-93	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98
1) Food and fertilizer Subsidies:
Food	2450	2850	2800	5537	5100	5377	6066	7500
Indigenous (urea) fertilizer	3730	3500	4800	3800	4075	4300	4743	5240
Imported (urea) fertilizer	659	1300	996	762	1166	1935	1350	1950
Fertilizer subsidy to small and marginal farmers	0	385	0	0	0	0	0	0
Export promotion and market development	2742	1758	818	665	658	16	400	440
Sale of decontrolled fertilizer with concession to farmers	0	0	0	0	528	500	1674	2000
TOTAL	9581	9793	9414	10764	11527	12128	14233	17130
2) Debt Relief to Farmers	1052	1425	1500	500	341	0	0	0
3) Other subsidies:
Railways	283	312	353	412	420	418	466	537
Mill made cloth	10	15	15	16	0	1	0	0
Handloom Cloth	185	187	161	174	148	143	98	84
Import/export of Sugar, Edible oils, etc.	0	0	0	0	0	100	50	50
Interests subsidies	379	316	113	113	76	34	1257	34
Assistance for fertilizer promotion	0	0	340	517	0	0	0	0
Other subsidies	218	205	99	186	420	481	590	416
TOTAL SUBSIDIES	12158	12253	11995	12682	12932	13305	16694	18251
Percentage of Food and fertilizer subsidy to total subsidy	79%	80%	78%	85%	89%	91%	85%	94%

Source: Rajya Sabha Unstarted question , 2270

In view of this situation only, some time ago our (late) Prime Minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, during her broadcast, had advised our farmers to use compost fertilizers which is made by mixture of dung and urine of animals, their left over food in the form of roots of grass, the dead leaves of trees, etc.

People must assert their rights to ask as to under whose direction and under whose pressure, the Government machinery and its bureaucrats are burdening the people with such unbearable and expensive cost of fertilizers.

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