Livelihood Impacts of Soil Health Livelihood Impacts of Soil Health Improvement in Backward and Tribal Improvement in Backward and Tribal Districts of Andhra Pradesh Districts of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Ever since the green revolution, there has been a continuous effort to increase food grain production by using chemical fertilizers in India. The cereal production in the country increased only five folds while the fertilizer consumption increased more than 300 times during the period 1950-51 to 2007-08 implying that the response to chemical fertilizers is declining due to low fertilizer use efficiency. Imbalanced use of chemical fertilizers, particularly nitrogen has caused deleterious effects on nutrient balance in soils, ground water and crop quality. Therefore, balanced fertilization of not only NPK but also micro and secondary nutrients has now become inevitable for sustaining soil quality and ensuring adequate quantity and quality of food grain production. In addition to emphasizing the balanced use of macro and micro nutrients, new policy initiatives like nutrient base subsidy are meant to promote balanced use of chemical fertilizers. However, for long term sustenance of soil quality dependence on chemical fertilizers alone is not adequate. Research has shown that the Integrated Plant Nutrient Supply (IPNS) system alone can ensure long term sustenance of soil quality and crop yields. Integration of chemical fertilizers with organic manures, bio-fertilizers and legumes in the cropping system forms the core of IPNS. Despite the proven benefits of IPNS through long term fertilizer experiments, the farm level adoption has been quite poor mainly due to lack of awareness among farmers, nonavailability of organic manures and crop biomass for soil incorporation in adequate quantities and the labour constraints associated with implementation of IPNS modules. In the NAIP project on “Sustainable rural livelihoods for enhanced farming systems productivity and efficient support systems in rainfed areas”, a consortium consisting of nine institutions under the leadership of CRIDA, Hyderabad has tested innovative modules for demonstrating the upscaling of balanced nutrition and IPNS modules in the farmers’ fields in more than 50 villages of 8 backward and tribal districts of Andhra Pradesh and brought out this publication on soil health management through integrated and balanced nutrition and its livelihood impacts. The project team has made an excellent effort in documenting the entire process of upscaling this important intervention through farmer’s participation and provided guidelines to line departments for further upscaling. I congratulate the authors for documenting this unique and innovative experience of participatory upscaling of IPNS strategy in rainfed and tribal districts of Andhra Pradesh. This book will be highly useful for extension functionaries and NGOs in implementing such programs at the village level.