Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

 Dear All

I am introducing Customized Leaf Colour Chart for Nitrogen Management in Irrigated Rice -one very effective tool in enhancing use efficieny of urea  at the field level .  As we all know, rice is the major staple food crop of world. In present situation self-sufficiency in rice has been a major goal of agricultural research and development in most Asian countries. Nitrogen fertilizer is an essential input in most rice soils to achieve high yields. Farmers are inclined to apply fertilizer N in high amount to minimize the risk of deficiency, which can lead to excessive fertilizer application. To support decision-making on the timing of N application in rice, ICAR-IIRR, Hyderabad  introduced the use of relatively inexpensive precision tools like LCC -a  simple and portable tool. Farmers apply nitrogen over the optimum requirements and it may leads to more losses of applied fertilizers results in lower recovery and efficiency which is already not more than 50% . Rice production in highly permeable soil profiles with alternating aerobic and anaerobic soil conditions, applied N is readily converted to Nitrate, which is prone to leaching, nitrification-denitrification etc. . When N application is not synchronized with crop demand, losses from the soil–plant system are at higher rate. Farmers can easily use the LCC for assessing foliar N status and adjust N topdressing accordingly.

Our field experiments have henceforth proved that 

LCC based N management reduces N requirement and improves the Agronomic Efficiency (AE) & Partial Factor Productivity (PFP).

Enhancement of N use efficiency in rice is very important.Application of ‘N’ through leaf colour chart (LCC) and SPAD – N technique gave nearly equal grain yield. These techniques saves about 20 – 30 kg/ha.   colour charts reading recorded at critical growth stages were closely correlated with grain yield. Colour charts of different green colour gradient was prepared and made available to farmers. The customized LCC developed at ICAR-IIRR, Hyderabad on the basis of spectral evaluation of leaves of hundreds of varieties under different N levels can be used for real time N management by using the N application schedules (20-30 kg N/ha depending on the crop stage). Grain yield, AE-N and PFP-N  was enhanced in both  during  wet  and dry seasons ( 5.33 t/ha), 38.14 and 68.64 ). 

How to use?

1.Start taking LCC readings from 14th day for Transplanted and 21st day for Direct seeding when basal not applied.

2.If basal ‘N’ (DAP or NPK) is applied take LCC readings at 21-25 DAT for Transplanted; 28-30 DAS for Direct Seeding.

3.Take 10 readings during (8-10 A.M.) from fully expanded, top most and healthy leaf of the 10 plants. (one reading/plant).

4.4. If 6 of 10 readings below the critical LCC 3 value apply ‘N’ as mentioned.

                             Kharif – 20-25 kg N/ha

                             Rabi : 25-28 kg N/ha

5. Repeat LCC readings for every 7 days to judge correct time of ‘N’ top dressing.

ADVANTAGES

LCC is  an easy-to-use and inexpensive diagnostic tool.The LCC can be used by the farmer himself to rapidly assess leaf nitrogen status and to decide the amount and time of nitrogen application.Helps to maintain optimal leaf nitrogen content of rice crop, which can be vital for achieving higher nitrogen use efficiency and better yield. Reduces the insect pest infestation.Reduces the cost of cultivation for rice

FAO resources on soils and fertilizers

Here is a selection of titles proposed by FAO Publications for forum participants who would like to read more on fertilizers and soil management.

Voluntary Guidelines for Sustainable Soil Management

An easy-to-understand and accessible reference on sustainable soil management for a wide range of stakeholders, from government officials to farmers to the private sector.

Status of the world’s soil resources

This 2015 report remains a benchmark for the periodical assessment and reporting of soil functions and overall soil health at global and regional level.

World fertilizer trends and outlook to 2020 ‒ Summary report‒

Estimates and projections of supply of, and demand for, nitrogen, phosphate and potassium fertilizers to 2020, with information on fertilizer use at global, regional and country level and a guide for planning and managing fertilizer resources.

Proceedings of the global symposium on soil organic carbon 2017

A report from the symposium on soil organic carbon (SOC), which focused on three themes: monitoring, mapping, measuring and reporting; maintaining stocks of SOC for climate change mitigation; and managing SOC.

Soil organic carbon: The hidden potential

On overview of soil organic carbon, and how better information and good practices can contribute to ending hunger, adapting to and mitigating climate change, and achieving overall sustainable development.

Soil, land and water

Data and useful information on the linkages between Sustainable Soil Management and climate change adaptation and mitigation, highlighting FAO’s global framework for action.

Proceedings of the FAO International Symposium on the Role of Agricultural Biotechnologies in Sustainable Food Systems and Nutrition

A review of agricultural biotechnologies, taking into account low-tech as well as high-tech approaches, to meet demand for a more sustainable agriculture while preserving and enhancing ecosystem services and biodiversity.

Water pollution from agriculture: a global review – Executive summary

This review points out negative impacts that agriculture can have on water and, in turn, on human health. It details different forms of pollution (including fertilizer use) and proposes responses.

Global assessment of the impact of plant protection products on soil functions and soil ecosystems

According to this Intergovernmental Technical Panel on Soils assessment, plant protection products remain key to reach global food production targets, provided there is a stringent regulatory framework to mitigate their impact on water quality, erosion and other areas.

Nature & Faune: Sustainable soil management key to food security and nutrition in Africa. Volume 30, Issue 1

About 30 papers from different African countries provide insights into the challenges to sustainable soil management in Africa, covering themes from soil surveys and assessments to soil fertility management.

Boosting Africa’s soils

This brochure reports on Africa’s soil status after the “Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer for the African Green Revolution” in 2006 and calls for an Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) perspective, crucial to food security and agricultural sustainability.

Please allow an additional comment to my previous one. That is I tend to get upset with the term illiterate and the implication that it means uninteligent as applied to smallholder farmers. Please  note that literacy requires inteligence, opportunity and motivation to take advantage of the opportunity. Remove the opportunity does not mean lost of inherent inteligency. Thus the result is there are many poorly educated but reasonable inteligent smallholder farmers, who are actually fairly skilled practitioners in the art of farming, and can quickly sort out what is and is not in their best interest. They are quite capable of sorting out fertilizer rates best suited to thier land and the decline production function as crop establishment is delayed.

Thank you

Escalating fertilizer prices, low fertilizer use efficiencies, low soil organic matter contents and poor soil fertility threaten crop yields and food security in arid and semi-arid climatic conditions. There is an urgent need of research involving research/academic, farmer and industrial stakeholders to adopt strategies for enhancing fertilizer use efficiency to maximize economic returns for small-land holding farmers, especially in developing countries. Famers should be made aware of using balanced fertilizers and follow the 4R approach i.e. right nutrient source, right rate of fertilizer application, right time of application and right place. Following the 4R approach would lead to precision agriculture meaning maximum economic returns and improved soil fertility and soil quality.

Dear all,

Please find attached Fertilizers Europe’s contribution to the online consultation for the development of the Code of Conduct for the Management of Fertilizers. On behalf of Fertilizers Europe and our members, thank you for the opportunity to participate and share our views on this topic.

Elisabeth Bömcke

on behalf of Agriculture & Environment Committee,

Fertilizers Europe

If you will excuse me I would like to return to the discussion and mostly reiterate my previous concerns regarding code of conduct regarding fertilizer use. This goes back to keeping careful track of the financial limits of most developing country that limits the amount of effective regulation and supervision that is possible without providing civil officer a major opportunity to extract gratuities for service assumed run, but not done. The result of this is an almost total reliance on the private sector to handle the distribution of fertilizers, with an emphasis on the village based family enterprises that are in direct contact with the smallholder farmers. They are also friends and neighbors and their best prospects for remaining in business is highly dependent on return business, which make them very quality conscience of the service they are providing.

Also, there is a need to be careful on any soil testing expected. Typically soil test cost approximately the same as a bag of fertilizer, and thus if the text in like to result in less than a bag of difference in fertilizer application, it will not be cost effective. Since most of the fertilizer in N based the difference of a whole bag of fertilizer on a one hectare or less field is unlikely. Can any host country actually get soil test results in the timely manner available in the USA (24-48 hours).

Also, be careful on your emphasis on organic fertilizer. While fully support the idea, it must be cost effective both financially and operationally. The latter being mostly associated with the labor needed to move around large volumes of low concentrated nutrients. In the context of developing country smallholder farmers that are already energy limited, the extra energy must come from the increased yield resulting from the organic nutrient application even if this is some 6 months later. I would guess that the farmer will need to gain 100 g of grain for each hour of additional labor handling the organic material. (100 g grain = 300 kcal, the energy exerted by an hour of diligent effort). Is this possible? In addition, there are limits on the amount of organic material available on farm for nutrient recovery. I think when dealing with crop residues the ratio of accumulated area to distributed area is about 3 to 1. Given all this I suspect the best means of nutrient recovery and recycling is to leave it up to the mobile composter (goats) they will take material normally burned and fairly quickly convert it to a material easily in cooperated, while actually gaining some energy from the process. Isn’t feeding rumens animals the same process as composting? Microbial de-carboning and concentration of the material. Again, please check the webpage:

http://smallholderagriculture.agsci.colostate.edu/organic-source-of-nut…

Dear All

Unless platform is ready applications will go haywire. Means, your fertilizer use efficiecny is as good as your soil condtions. In this context, on world soil day, me involved , brought out a brochure for all the stakeholders to alert them abvout broader societal roles in making our soil health sound. Some excerpts:

Soil is a natural resource serving the human beings since time immemorial.  It takes thousands of years to make one meter depth of soil.  Soil is key to  eco-system services as it plays vital roles in carbon cycle, storing and filtering of water.  The organic matter content, on an average, has gone down to a critical level of 0.3 to 0.5 percent and several micro-nutrient/multinutrient deficiencies are emerging/reported from various parts of the country.  Furthermore, declining response ratios due to over use of fertilizers are being often  reported, which lead to wasteful expenditure on fertilizer subsidy meaning loss of key national resources.  This is affecting human health, apart from posing serious threats to agricultural productivity and sustainability.  Another alarming factor is, nearly 140 million hectares of soils have become problematic because of the fact that they are either acidic, saline or sodic or alkaline soils.  For India, which has over 17% of world population with limited land resources, the situation warrants immediate attention to take care of the soils.  Unless immediate attention is paid, it will pose serious threats to agricultural sustainability and to feed the beeming billions will put our already scarce resources to severe stress.

Role of stakeholders in promoting Sustainable Management of soil

Sustainable soil management is fundamental for food/nutrition as well as water security.  The important role of soil in mitigating climate change is highly relevant in the changing scenario of climate.  The well managed soil helps in storing/sequestering carbon and reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.  The need of the hour is, to protect our soils especially in terms of their quality.  Soil should be managed in such a way that organic matter is not further deteriorated, precious top soil is not lost and water is retained.  Better managed soils sustainably support agriculture, enhance efficiency of inputs and enhance quality of agricultural produce.

1. Role of Extension

                The extension system of the country should focus on the importance of soil health while they deliver advisory services to the farmers.   The State government should encourage farming practices that contribute to soil health.  Farmers who contribute to soil health also need to be incentivized. Such incentives should be built-in into various schemes implemented by the states/GOI.

1. Role of Research

                The research need to focus on various methods to restore soil health and recommend simple/workable solution so that can be adapted at farmer’s level.

1. Role of Urban and Rural Local Bodies

                The soils are continuously being polluted due to effluents released from the urban and rural sewerage system due to untreated drainage released into agriculture fields.  Pollution-loaded effluents from Industries including small scale industries is a matter of grave concern as soils and river  ecosystems are polluted with metals, poisonous substances which  cannot be restored for millions of years.   The local bodies shall effectively treat the effluents, and release only after harmful effluents are prevented and soil contamination minimized.

3.Role of Community Action

                Soil being a national resource, the whole community needs to be involved in its upkeep and restoration. Community Action to be promoted to create awareness about Soil Health Management at various levels- Schools, Panchayats, Shopping complexes, Marketing yards so as to generate bare minimum plastic waste and promote use of bio-degradable items.

1. Role of Farmers

                Since time immemorial, farmers of India have been very innovative in protecting the soils.  They have been practicing innovations like incorporating catch/cover crops, adding compost to the soils, adding green manure and green leaf manure before onset of monsoon.  The need of the hour is to restore good rational systems back so that our soils are protected and health of the soil improves.  The livelihoods of the farmers will be protected only as long as soil health is good. 

 Soil Information Services

1. To place a comprehensive  uniform soil and agricultural information system  and Integration/Network/sharing of Soil date/Land use data/and relevant auxiliary data to make the system robust and useful for analytics as well as decision support.
2. Enhance Capacities to use the information on GIS platforms  and bring in Uniformity and harmonization of methods, measurements and indicators around soil health management (like soil sampling and testing, economics of land degradation, benefits and impacts of soil health in agriculture)
3. Documentation and availability of indigenous soil health management practices/knowledge

 Strategies

1. In all watershed programs, soil health management shall be given top priority. 

"Soil Health Cards will be updated once in 2 years and should be digitized ie Soil health status of the country should be on a mouse click. Soil health will be integral part of all natural resources management schemes and implementation.

"Heavy machinery suited to Indian soils and not deteriorating soil health will alone be encouraged as a part of mechanization.

"Encouraging integrated farming systems (IFS) and organic farming.

       "Converting urban solid waste as a nutrient after thoroughly testing for residues and Encouraging practices enhancing  levels of soil organic matter content at plot or farm level.

1. Incentives for youth to establish soil health related enterprises at village level like bio-fertilizers units , compost/vermi-compost units, soil testing labs and recycling of agriculture waste and convert into organic matter

1. Farmers undertaking Good Agriculture Practices (GAP), and maintaining good soil health will be given cash awards (DBT), by concern Gram Panchayat(5 farmers per Gram panchayat concern GP). Farmers who are maintaining good soil health by having cover crops, using compost and applying balanced doses of fertilizers will be considered for cash awards.  The amount will be given through State Governments.

1. Subsidies to be provided to seed companies to provide cover crop seed along with main crop seeds ie companies must promote System diversification & Legume integration.

Marketing of Carbon Credits

                Suitable marketing institutes will be developed to integrate farmers to encash and sell carbon credits and ecosystem services developed by farmer.

Finance

                Need based  finances will be given to encourage farmers to avail institutional loans for improving the Soil Health of Indian Soils.

Read more from our brochure attached

Dear All, 

One major concern of poor nutrient use efficnecy has been how we have addressed hisatorically the nutrient applications. Whether we have sound mechanisms to measure good soil health indicators.  I quote from my recent research paper as

Why concern about soil – health?

          Our soil is continuing to undergo increasing stress from alarming pace of population growth, of vegetation line, soil degradation, increasing concentration of population in soil, climate change and loss of bio-diversity. There is extreme  change in the global climate on one side of the country there is drought and in other part unseasonable and erratic precipitation adversely affect the crop production resulting in serious impact in our existing agricultural growth. Modernization of agriculture has considerably affected the physical and chemical constraints like formation of traffic soil pan, soil crusting, soil structure deterioration due to decline in organic matter, soil nutrient depletion, non-judicious water management. All these constraints will badly reflect soil health and crop production.

Major factors affecting soil quality

          The major causes of poor soil quality are :

1. Wide gap between nutrient demand and supply
2. High nutrient turnover in soil plant system coupled with low and imbalanced fertilizeruse.
3. Emerging deficiency of secondary and micronutrients due to improper use of inputs such as water, fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
4. Insufficient use of organic inputs
5. Acidificaiton and Al3+ toxicity
6. Development of adverse soil conditions such as heavy metal toxicity
7. Disproportionate growth of microbial population responsible for soil sickness and erosion, deforestation due to rapid urbanization and industrialization.

Quantitative assessment of soil quality

          There are mainy approaches that are used for soil quality evaluation per se soil health. In all these cases minimum data set (MDS) can be used. Among them, the following approaches are  important to assess soil health condition.

1. Comparative assessment: Here the performance of a system can be evaluated in relation to alternatives at a given time only. For example, after 15-25 years of cultivation, some quality parameters get changed over initial soil quality attributes due to land-use-management practices, particularly in long term soil fertility experiments under different cropping system.

1. Dynamic assessment: In this case, a performance of a system can be evaluated in relation to alternative across time. The dynamic assessment approach should includes many steps viz., explicit identification of the desired outputs of management (productivity, erodability, human, animal health etc.). Then assessment of design of the system to determine if it will produce the desire output. Identification of soil quality parameters, establishment of starting point, historical record of the site should be maintained and stabilization of a system process that is out-of-control. A stable system of variation is one of which the variation is solely a result of the system in place, and there are no special causes of variation.

1. Common statistical approach – Regression analysis: Here multiple linear regressions can be used to calculate soil quality index of crop productivity using soil attributes as important determining factors.
2. Pedotransfer functions: This is a mathematical function that relates soil characteristics and properties with one another using minimum data set for evaluation of soil quality. Many pedotransfer functions occur in the literature and are statistical or empirical in nature. Some selected PTSs are may be cation exchange capacity (CEC = a OC + bC relationship, bulk density, Db = f (OC+clay), change in organic matter, C = a + b OC and soil productivity, P1 – f (Db +AWHC +pH + EC +ARE).

1. Standardize scoring function based on threshold limits and base line values: Scoring functions are based on threshold limits and base line values (Karlen and Scott. 1994). These functions are used to transform the measured indicator values into performance-based score for soil quality index. In this approach of Relative Soil Quality Index (RSQI), for example 9 indicators were combined into an RSQI. The equation for calculating RSQI value is given below:

RSQI = (SQI/SQIm) x 100, here SQI = soil quality index; SQIm = Maximum    value of SQI

The maximum value of SQI for soil is 400 and the minimum value 100 (Wang and Gong 1998). SQI is calculated from the equation:

As SQI = ∑ WiIi ; Wi = Weights of indicators; Ii = the marks of the indicators classes as shown in 

1. Principal component analysis (PCA): The principal component analysis (PCA) is a useful multivariate statistical tool that has the advantage of generating relationships among many correlated variables into a few principle components (PCs). These can be classified as soil quality indicators with respect to the specific soil functions. Changes in the properties or soil attributes associated with a PC can be used to classify soil quality as aggrading, degrading or stable. In this method, four steps are followed: (i) define the goal, (ii) select a minimum data set (MDS) of indicators that best represent soil function, (iii) score the MDS based on performance of soil function and (iv)integrate the indicators scores into a comparative index of soil quality.

          Read my paper for more contents and clarity related to how developing a model soil health indicator can lead to better nutrient use efficency ultimately enhancing the fertilizer use efficiency.

I wish to draw attention towards one such intervention, how Govertment action can lead to sudden upliftment of the use efficiency of nutrtients. In 2015, the government Ogf India ,had made it mandatory to coat domestic/imported urea with neem oil. This was done to boost crop yields, reduce cost of production and curb diversion to non-agriculture sectors. This was also done with the background information that India produces around 2.5 lakh tonnes of neem oil every year, which is sufficient for mandatory 100 per cent coating of domestic and imported urea, Also several reports suggest that It is estimated that over 60 per cent of the world’s neem tree population is found in India. Recent media repoirts suggest and senior governement functionaries stated that the manufacturers have been asked to install CCTV camera at production facilities and ports, and ensure proper testing of neem oil in-house as well as through outside laboratory before using the same for urea coating, he added.  Higher government functionaries stating that neem-coated urea is showing positive results, the official said a study conducted by the Agriculture Ministry in four states —— Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab —— found that there was increase in farmers’ returns due to rise in crop yields and reduction in cost of production because of lower consumption of urea.The study, conducted through Bengaluru-based Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Centre (ADRTC), found that use of neem-coated urea improved soil health, reduced costs on plant protection chemicals, reduced pest/disease attack and higher crop yields, 

I suggest such measures can in a single stroke lead to immediate increase in use effciency of this particular nutrtient at field level.

Given the global scope of the CoCoFe, do you think the objectives are appropriate?  Yes, I think so.

How should be the CoCoFe be structured to have the maximum positive impact? In my opinion, the CoCoFe structure should matches the fertilizers behaviour in soil. Nitrogen fertilizers deserves particular attention, since the stability in soil of mineral N is very few. P, K and other may be grouped in common procedures. I think the CoCoFe structure may be similar to that of 'Good agricultural practices for fertilization', developed in some countries (I know the case of Spain, to which good practices codes I indirectly contributed through my doctoral tesis entitled  'Nitrate leaching under corn monoculture').

Who would be the best audience for the CoCoFe to meet our objectives and how could we broaden and diversify this audience to increase its influence? I think the agents involved in the decisions on the dates when the fertilizers must be applied, they are the best audience. It is today well known that N fertilizers must be saved from rainy seasons, which dramatically lixiviate the mineral nitrogen from the upper layer of the cultivated soil.

What should the scope of the CoCoFe be? Which nutrient input sources should be included; only synthetic fertilizers, or also manure, biosolids, compost, etc.? In my opinion, all fertilizers types should be included. In Europe, the largest points of groundwater contamination by nitrates was produced, some decades ago, by organic residues from big livestock farms.

 Should other products such as bio-stimulants, nitrification inhibitors, urease inhibitors, etc., be included as well? Yes, in brief.

Will the CoCoFe assist in promoting responsible and judicious use of fertilizers?  Yes, it will. Why or why not? It will guides good practices. What other suggestions do you have to help the CoCoFe meet our objectives? I think the 'Good practices for fertilizers management' codes developed in some countries can help.