Union budget is a missed opportunity: Greenpeace

No concrete action plan to address soil health crisis in budget

prasanna

Prasanna Mohanty | February 28, 2011



Reacting to the budget on Monday, Greenpeace said the finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has not only missed a historical opportunity to ring in a concrete policy to address the soil health crisis but also failed to respond to the aspirations of the farmers in the country.

“On one hand the finance minister has talked about deterioration in soil health due to indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and on the other hand he continues to promote chemical fertilizers. The promise from the finance minister to promote organic farming and green manuring under the national mission for sustainable agriculture offers some hope but what is needed is a concrete plan to promote alternative ecological means of soil nutrition and a shift away from chemical fertilizers, Greenpeace India campaigner Gopikrishna SR said.

Soil health should be the focus in deciding on policies related to fertilizers. Bringing urea under nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) or some other ad hoc permutations and combination with chemical fertilizers will not help solve the present agrarian crisis, he said.

An external market driven and fossil fuel dependent agriculture system is not sustainable. What is needed is support for eco-friendly, farmer and farm centric alternatives, Gopikrishna said.

“We demand that while transferring fertilizer subsidy to the farmers, the government should bring in provisions to support ecological fertilization. Also, the government should take steps in the next five year plan period to develop a holistic ecological fertilization programme and start moving funds from chemical fertilizers, he added.
 

Comments

 

Other News

India lost Rs 52,000 crore to cyber fraud in five years: DoT

India has lost more than Rs 52,000 crore to cyber fraud over the last five years, officials have revealed. Out of approximately 60 lakh cyber fraud complaints received, more  than 3,000 cases have been resolved and six cyber fraud setups have been busted.   On the occ

India must not wait for its own Ella

In many Indian cities, children learn to wear masks before they are old enough to understand why. That reality should alarm us far more than it does.   In 2020, nine-year-old Ella Adoo Kissi Debrah became the first person in the world to have air pollution officially recognized a

An ode to the cradle of humankind

The Alphabets of Africa: Poems By Abhay K. Vintage Classics, 280 pages, ₹499.00   Abhay K

Ahmedabad district railway network to be expanded

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by prime minister Narendra Modi, on Wednesday approved the Ahmedabad (Sarkhej) – Dholera Semi High-Speed Double Line project of Ministry of Railways with total cost of Rs. 20,667 crore (approx.). It will be Indian Railways 1st semi high-speed project

Indian Ocean more contested than ever: Western Naval Command Chief

The Indian Ocean is becoming increasingly contested and strategically significant as the Indo-Pacific emerges as the defining geopolitical theatre of the 21st century, Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief of the Western Naval Command, has said.   Spe

Why the judiciary needs much more than four more judges

India has a particular form of governance theatre: the bold declaration that appears to be action but is actually a way of avoiding action. The Union Cabinet on May 5 approved a Bill to increase the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court from 34 to 38. The decision has been touted as a step toward judici


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter