Here goes the interview with the head of the research department of the agriculture collage Trivandrum.
- Which crop do you think is most subjected to toxicants and why?
The major crops of Kerala are paddy, banana, coconut, tubers like yams. Rice is cultivated as 2 or 3 cycles per year which leads to the deterioration of essential nutrients in the soil, hence becomes impossible to cultivate without using additional supplements.
- What are the adverse effects of excessive use of fertilizers in farms?
Excess concentration of urea and nitrogen supplied by fertilizers is lost through solar radiation. The ammonia evolved leads to the increase in temperature leading to pollution. Nitrogenous fertilizer dissolve in water imperculates and mixes with ground water, this is termed as perculation. As decontamination is not possible for ground water it leads to serious issues when pumped out for irrigation.
- Can you discuss on the adverse effect of ground water pollution?
The perculated water is used for the irrigation of photo crops which absorb large quantities of nitrogen and these crops are harvested and fed to lactating animals like cow. Through the lactating mother this is carried on to young ones during breast feeding. This is leads to blue disease.
- Are all the fertilizers that are applied used up by the plants?
In undulating topography water runoff is common. This leads to the deposition of fertile soil in lakes and other fresh water sources. It helps the fresh water fauna like ferns and algae to grow luxuriantly. These die after few months and their decomposition requires large amount of oxygen. The oxygen required is taken up from the water leading to depletion of oxygen in water. Aquatic life forms like fishes are deprived of oxygen and dies, this is termed as utrofication.
- Can you suggest some measures to decrease the fertilizer impact?
One of the effective solutions is utilize the maximum output out of the fertilizers used. Out of the fertilizers applied only 25-30% nitrogen is absorbed. The measures that can be utilized are;
- Mix urea with moist soil, which absorbs nitrogen and fixes it in the soil.
- Mix urea with neem cake, which contain a lot of alkalies.this helps in extending the availability of nitrogen for a long period of time.
- Fertigation-fertilizers soluble in water is applied along with irrigation water, this can help save a lot of labour and in water conservation.
We hope that we have been able to contribute fruitfully to the project. We also hope the information we have provided would be useful to the teams collaborating with us.
Regards,
Lars, Dharany, Reshma, Shreya, Anjali, Ashish