Showing posts with label Sustainable Agriculture. Show all posts

Next-Generation Fish-Farming Techniques Aim For Sustainability

Posted by Unknown in , on Friday, 15 March 2013

BY Roxanne Palmer
IBTimes
Next-Generation Fish-Farming

By midcentury, mankind must double food production to fill the bellies of an exploding population of humans, according to the United Nations. A big part of that growth is likely to come from farmed seafood.

“With Earth’s burgeoning human population to feed, we must turn to the sea with new understanding and new technology,” famed oceanographer Jacques Cousteau said in 1973. “We need to farm it as we farm the land.”

Balancing accelerated food production with sustainability is a tricky act, but on Sunday scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston described how aquaculture could possibly pull it off -- and what challenges lie on the road ahead.



U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA, aquaculture program leader Jeffrey Silverstein pointed out that 70 percent of the Earth is covered in water, yet only 1.5 percent of human food is drawn from it.

Finned fish are much more efficient sources of protein than other kinds of livestock -- for every pound of food you put into a fish, you get about a pound of body weight. In contrast, you have to feed chickens two pounds of food to get a pound of body weight, and you have to give pigs three or four pounds of food for each pound they put on, according to Silverstein.

However, that pound of fish food can require several pounds of flesh to produce, much of it from other fish, usually from processed pelagic fish such as anchovies. To increase sustainability, fish farmers have been turning to diets that consist of more and more plant products and less and less fish meal.

But using plant products brings its own host of problems, one of the more significant being that a farmed fish that dines more on plants than on animals tends to be less oily and nutritious. Frequently, farmed fish have to be fed fish oil near the end of their lives to help make them healthier for humans to eat. One of the ways to mitigate that dip in nutrition could be to turn to an alternative source of fish food: microbes.

Researchers are currently trying to perfect the production of various microbes that could bulk up a farmed fish’s diet, thereby cutting the amount of food and agricultural land used indirectly by fish food production.

Margareth Overland, a nutritionist with the Aquaculture Protein Center at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences, said one of the more promising microbial sources for fish food is yeast grown on processed spruce wood. Algae and bacteria are also being studied.

Microbial and bacterial diets not only pump a fish full of vitamins, but also seem to help reduce the intestinal inflammation in the fish.

“Not all that different from the probiotic yogurts we buy in stores,” Overland said.

However, microbe-based food is years away from being ready to supply large industries, and researchers still need to conduct taste tests to make sure there's nothing especially fishy about a salmon that's been dining on yeast.

Changing fish food will likely also help cut the carbon footprint of many fish farms. One of the biggest components of a Norwegian salmon farm's greenhouse-gas impact is associated with the transportation of food sources, so if microbial food is a success, it could lessen that impact.

Other options for alternative fish food exist, too. A British business magnate has been creating protein meal made from housefly larvae, better known as maggots, and selling that to poultry and salmon farms in South Africa, as NPR reported.

There may also be ways to tweak fish to get more nutrition from them. Preliminary research has identified a genetic variant in rainbow trout that prompts them to make more omega-3 oils, a trait that could be exploited through traditional breeding techniques, USDA's Silverstein said.

At the moment, “genetically improved” fish stocks make up just 10 percent of farmed fish in the U.S., Silverstein said.

That figure could change soon. In December, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a preliminary finding that AquAdvantage salmon -- a genetically modified Atlantic salmon that grows to full size much faster than normal fish thanks to the addition of genes from Chinook salmon and the ocean pout -- would have “no significant impact” on the environment. That move signals that AquAdvantage salmon is nearing final approval.

But AquAdvantage salmon has become a major flashpoint in the debate over genetically modified organisms. Last week, the FDA said it would extend the comment period on its environmental assessment of AquAdvantage salmon until late April.

Improvements in fish-farm construction are also expected to boost aquaculture production.

Catfish farmers have found success with split-pond designs. Such a design entails separating a smaller area, where the fish are kept, from a much larger area, where the water is treated. Split-pond farming has helped catfish farmers see their yields triple to 15,000 pounds per acre from 5,000 pounds per acre in the last several years, according to Silverstein.

Land-based enclosures are also catching on in aquaculture. Right now, you might be perturbed at the thought of a salmon grown in the Midwest, but such a scenario could be in the future of sustainable fish farming.

Steven Summerfelt, who oversees research into sustainable aquaculture techniques at the Arlington, Va.-based nonprofit environmental group The Conservation Fund, said the latest contained fish farms use less water and pollute far less than farms in open oceans.

“If done properly, there’s no discharge allowed,” Summerfelt said.

A single 3,300-metric ton next-generation salmon farm could produce enough fish each week to fill up an entire schoolbus, top to bottom, side to side, Summerfelt  said -- a rate that could satisfy 1 percent of U.S. salmon consumption.

Human population explosion and declining wild-fish stocks around the globe practically dictate that fish farming will be a necessity in the near future -- and if the next generation of aquaculture realizes its promise, it could ensure that seafood stays on the plate for generations to come.

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Farm & Forest Can Develop Together According To Scientists

Posted by Unknown in , , , , , , , on Sunday, 27 January 2013


Agriculture and forest can exist in harmony with each other and sustainable development too can take place provided things are planned in that manner.
Unfortunately, lack of coherent and sustainable planning, a result of absence of a 'land use policy' in the country, is not allowing that to happen. As along as human beings do not break the balance and interfere with ecology, agriculture and forest need not be in conflict with each other.
This was the opinion of almost every speaker at the inaugural programme of a two-day brainstorming session on 'Agriculture and Forest: Conflicting Domains or Symbiotic Paradigm' organized by the National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning (NBSS&LUP) on Tuesday.
S M Virmani, former chief scientist of International Crop Research Institute of Semi-Arid Tropics, Hyderabad, said that forest was capable of giving every thing human beings could ask for including shelter, food, and medicines but it was our greed that was leading to a situation of conflict. Giving examples of gradual disappearance of sparrow from urban ecology and tigers from forests, he said these were manmade disasters. The man-animal conflict was an example of man encroaching upon tiger's territory rather than tiger encroaching on human land. He warned that unless we traced the causes of this conflict. the required damage control was not possible.
A K Joshi, principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF), Maharashtra, spoke about the nature and conflict between people, animal, forest and agriculture activities and also mentioned the importance of symbiosis of these activities.
He also spoke about the livelihood opportunities through ecotourism in the tribal belts.
Ram Prasad, ex-PCCF Madhya Pradesh, explained the role of water management through forest for agriculture purpose and importance of forest planning for watershed management to provide maximum benefits to farmers in the lower reaches. Forest and agriculture both were land based, occupying a continuum on the landscape and their co-existence was necessary for sustainable livelihood in the tribal areas, he said.
He also mentioned that agriculture was the main beneficiary of forest ecosystem, conservation of forest could provide satisfaction provided policies were formulated to address specific issues, he added.
Dipak Sarkar, NBBS&LUP director, stressed on the role of forests in carbon storage as trees were the biggest source of carbon sequestration. He pointed out that cutting of forests led to huge soil erosion which had a devastating effect on both forest ecosystem as well as human life.
Ashok Sharma, chief general manager of Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra, traced the root cause of various problems to improper policies. He categorically stated that disregarding scientific principles of management could eventually lead to vegetation anarchy both in forestry and agriculture. He called for a comprehensive landscape management policy.
Arun Chaturvedi, principal scientist and head of land use planning at NBBS&LUP, spoke on symbiosis of agriculture and forests. He observed that climate change would affect rainfed agriculture and increase pressure on the forests.
He stressed on the need for creating awareness among farmers about value of non-timber forest produce.
He said in erstwhile forested areas, it was not possible to sustain a family of even 4-5 persons on one or two hectare of land. The income from agriculture needed to be supplemented with additional income from forest produce or other ancillary activities like poultry, pisciculture small ruminant animals etc.
Expert View
* Since forests are biggest source of carbon-dioxide sequestration, conscious efforts should be done to increase forest cover without displacing forest dwellers
* Efforts must be made to minimize global warming caused through agriculture
* Agriculture growth should shift from horizontal to vertical
* Identify faults in existing forest and agriculture development processes and make efforts to rectify them
* Evolve better and scientific policies of land use for sustainable forest and agriculture development
* Develop a land use policy for country
* Increase per hectare productivity of agriculture and diversify agriculture

Times of India

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How Farm Waste Provides Clean Energy for Homes | A Project By UNEP

Posted by Unknown in , , , , ,

A project backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is working to make clean energy a reality for households in a rural region of Pakistan.

Sanghar, a farming district in Sindh province in east-central Pakistan, is home to nearly two million people. Wheat, cotton, sugar cane, rice and maize are grown here, providing livelihoods and food for local communities.
In the villages and towns of the district, access to reliable sources of energy is difficult. Indeed, in households all over Sanghar, women prepare meals and heat water by burning wood or biomass in rudimentary stoves that release choking, black smoke.
Now a new project backed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is working to make clean energy a reality for local households.
Realizing that the district was a rich source of agricultural waste, UNEP's International Environmental Technology Centre (IETC), based in Japan, began working on a project to convert agricultural waste left in the fields into clean, sustainable energy.
As a first step, the IETC worked with the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology in Jamshoro to quantify the amount of agricultural waste in the district. A survey found that 2.5 million tonnes of waste ? wheat and canola straw, cotton stalks, cotton gin waste, sugarcane tops, bagasse, rice straw and husks, and banana plant ? was produced in the district, although not all was available for conversion into energy.
A subsequent calculation found that the energy potential of the available waste was equivalent to 1.07 million tonnes of fire wood, or 910 million units of electricity (with a conversion efficiency rate of 20 per cent). If this energy potential was fully realised, the converted waste could meet the energy demands of roughly 400,000 households (at 2400 units per household).
Further research was done to determine how agricultural waste was managed and used, to avoid future conflicts. For instance, it was learnt that 20 per cent of sugarcane tops was being fed to animals, but 80 per cent was being burnt in the fields, along with the entire quantity of banana plant waste and about 70-80 per cent of rice straw. These materials could therefore be used for energy conversion without impacting on food supplies or other needs.
The next step was to decide which technology to use. Several were considered, but after careful analysis a biogas plant was selected, as it had the twin benefits of being able to supply clean fuel (biogas) to surrounding households and produce a good supply of compost, which could be used as fertilizer. A site was chosen at the back of the Sanghar Sugar Mills, which agreed to provide the land and funds to build the plant.
Built at a cost of two million rupees (about US$ 23,000), the biogas plant opened on 1 August 2011. It is producing 50 cubic metres of biogas a day, using 400 kilograms a day of agriculture waste. As well, it produces 200 kilograms a day of liquid fertilizer and 150 kilograms a day of solid fertilizer.
The biogas produced is enough to provide energy to about 20 households, putting to good use a resource that would otherwise have gone to waste.
For more information, please contact:
Surya Prakash Chandak, Senior Programme Officer, UNEP International Environmental Technology Centre, Email: surya.chandak@unep.org
Moira O'Brien-Malone, UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Tel: +33 1 44 37 76 12, Email: moira.obrien-malone@unep.org

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Chefs with Issues: Making Seafood Sustainability Palatable

Posted by Unknown in , , , , on Friday, 25 January 2013

Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Chef John Ash serves on the Board of Advisors of Seafood Watch, an educational initiative for sustainable seafood by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He recently hosted a panel discussion about seafood sustainability as a practice. Among the participants were Chef Bun Lai, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sustainability Leader of the Year, and Yousef Ghalaini, executive chef of New York’s sustainable seafood restaurant Imperial No. Nine.
Recently, nearly 30 thought leaders in the seafood, restaurant and sustainability worlds came together to have a conversation about how chefs can embrace seafood sustainability in a greater, more mainstream way.
“Thought for Food: A Discussion on Sustainable Seafood” was facilitated by James Beard award-winning chef and author John Ash, widely respected as a sustainability pioneer. Participants came from a variety of backgrounds: chefs, NGO leaders, journalists and other members of the food industry vanguard.


Each brought a different perspective to the buzz-worthy subject of "conscious cuisine," an idea brought to the forefront by New York Times journalist and author Mark Bittman. In his book, "Food Matters, Guide to Conscious Eating," he explains conscious cuisine as the idea that one deliberately chooses deliciously prepared food that is not just good for you but is also produced with a keen appreciation for the health of and respect for the planet.
Today, consumers are more naturally curious about the provenance of their food and its method of production, and retailers have found a way to make these types of conversations part of the every day. More and more people want to know where their tomatoes were grown and who picked them. They also genuinely care about the quality of life of the cow that yielded that T-bone. But fewer customers think about the sustainability and origin of the seafood on the menu, other than perhaps where the fish were raised.
While some chefs are leading the charge and embracing sustainability at every level, others have been slower to come around on the subject.
As Scott Nichols, PhD of aquaculture innovator, Verlasso, said, “We can’t keep depleting our oceans. To continue to eat fish, we need to raise them in an ecologically responsible manner, benefitting both the consumer and the species - not just capture them. With a current worldwide population exceeding seven billion people - estimates for 2050 push that number to nine billion - effectively sourcing quality fish has come to the forefront of the international discussion on sustainability.”
As the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported in 2008, “Fish provided more than 2.9 billion people with at least 15 percent of their average per capita animal protein intake.” That is a small percentage of people, consuming a whole lot of fish. Coupled with the fact that the USDA 2010 Dietary Guidelines recommend doubling the consumption of seafood from 3.5 ounces to eight ounces per week, it is easy to conclude that aquaculture will play a key part in helping to feed a hungry world.
Salmon, that nutritional powerhouse that consumers go to for brain and heart health, was the species that opened the discussion on the importance of sustainable seafood. Until recently, chefs only had two sources of salmon they could put on their menus: wild-caught and farm-raised.
Salmon, like tuna, is just one type of large fish that depends on several levels of the food chain for survival. In essence, each fish needs to consume many smaller fish to thrive. As Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia states, “A pound of tuna represents roughly a hundred times the footprint of a pound of sardines.” And given our growing population, this is just not a reliable method for increased seafood demand.
Yousef Ghalaini, executive chef of New York’s Imperial No. Nine adds, “Those chefs who do opt to put wild salmon on their menus say that it is harder to prepare - being lower in fat - and some diners find the flavor too intense.”
Most farm-raised salmon, on the other hand, is raised in an environment where every life stage is controlled: quantity of eggs fertilized, number of fish per pen, diet and harvest.
The detractors to this method, however, are clear: Farm-raised salmon also demand high levels of feeder fish for their diet.
Nichols notes, “This ratio is termed ‘fish-in, fish-out’ and typically translates to four pounds of fish needed to produce just one pound of farm-raised salmon.” Adding to the sustainability conundrum, many of these feeder fish are considered consumable on their own, as opposed to being used as feed for salmon.
In recent years, environmental groups like Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) FishWatch have brought increasing attention to both wild fisheries and traditional aquaculture, which has led to improvement in the industry. But, much remains to be done to make aquaculture healthy and sustainable. These are facts that every "Thought for Food" participant could agree upon, which led to the discussion of the third solution: harmoniously raised salmon, a new category that has emerged just this past year.
Verlasso, located in the cold waters of Patagonia, is the only company producing harmoniously raised salmon. With standards guided by the World Wildlife Fund’s sustainability goals, the company aims to change the way the world gets their salmon. Situated away from the threat of pollutants, industrial waste or other contaminants, Verlasso raises its salmon with a very low pen density of four fish per ton of water. This environment allows each fish to be identified and monitored carefully to ensure a healthy life.
The harmoniously raised salmon also have a unique diet that reduces the fish-in fish-out ratio by 75 percent. This innovative process replaces fish oil with yeast, rich in Omega-3s, making Verlasso salmon markedly more sustainable. The pens are also allowed to rest for months between production cycles, a process akin to farmers letting fields go fallow and ameliorate themselves from the rigors of production. The results have been significant.
“The quality is exceptional,” notes Chef Ghalaini, who recently started serving harmoniously raised fish. “This salmon is like nothing I’ve ever had access to before. The scales are tight, the gills are beautiful, the eyes are glassy – all indicators of a fish that has led a great life.”
At Imperial No. Nine, he serves Verlasso salmon two ways: raw, in a salmon and tuna tartare with Sriracha and Hawaiian-style poi, garnished with chives. Chef Ghalaini makes this from the belly of the salmon, which has both a flavor and texture that “really pops with a clean bite.” The salmon he serves hot is seared with a horseradish crust, plated on a bed of celery root purée and Brussels sprouts. “The bite of the horseradish is totally balanced by the unique sweetness of the salmon.”
The "Thought for Food" participants discussed another important point: it is one thing for the chef to advocate sustainability, but how do we convey this message to our customers?
As Chef Ash remarks, “That’s the $64,000 question. You have to do it so carefully and thoughtfully. Diners are really coming to restaurants to enjoy themselves. They do not want to be preached at...because you can turn people off. Chefs need to set the stage for it, but the waitstaff are the real touch point to the diners.”
Chef Ghalaini concurs, “We take the time to educate our servers about this fish. They have tasted it raw, and they have tasted it cooked. They have seen for themselves how different it is. And it is my responsibility, as a chef, to make sure that happens so they can tell the customers.”
Chef Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi in New Haven, Connecticut, was another "Thought for Food" participant. The recipient of the 2011 Seafood Ambassador Award from Monterey Bay Aquarium for his leadership in the Sustainable Seafood movement, his restaurant has been named one the country’s ten most sustainable restaurants.
Chef Lai echoes Chef Ghalaini’s sentiment that the entire restaurant team must be on board with the tenets of sustainability if that is an issue the chef cares about and strives to uphold.
He adds, “The food we chefs choose to use ultimately affects the health and happiness of not only our dining guests, but that of the producer, everyone involved in getting that product to us, the environment and the planet as a whole. As a food artist, that is how I base every decision in my restaurant. I only hire staff who are ideological and philosophical in what they do. They must realize that everything we do is connected in a larger way.”
With such a commitment to sustainability, Chef Lai is continuously looking for producers, partners and models to further the ideal all the way down to the customer. Among the several perspectives discussed, Chef Lai says, “I came out of the 'Thought for Food' discussion reconsidering farmed salmon. I have admired Chef Ash for a really long time, not just for the food he prepares, but for his philosophy and his principles. ...There is great progress happening in the world of sustainability so I think it’s important to keep one’s mind open to improvements in science and technology.”
As a chef who teaches at the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone and serves on the board of the Chefs Collaborative, Chef Ash has sustainability advice for those chefs just coming up through the ranks: “It’s the old saw about getting to know your purveyors. Get to know your farmer. As the great Kentucky poet and farmer Wendell Berry once said, 'You gotta know where your food comes from and know the person behind where your food comes from.'”
Chef Lai takes it one step further and encourages those same chefs to embrace sustainability because he has seen how it makes him a better chef: “In ‘confining’ myself to the tenets of sustainability – in everything I do – I find I am more creative. I like how this passion inspires me to be better.”

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Sustainable agriculture and fertilizer practices in Pakistan

Posted by Unknown in , , on Sunday, 9 September 2012

Mohammad Ali Khaskheli
Agriculture Officer Sanghar

Agriculture is the mainstay of Pakistan’s economy. It has a total area of 79.61 million hectare, and the total area used for crop production is only 22 million ha. Of which about 18 million ha (80 percent) are irrigated. Pakistan agriculture accounts for 24 percent of the growth domestic product (GDP), employs 48 percent of the labour force and contributes about 60 percent to export earnings.

Pakistan is a developing country with the world's sixth-largest population. The current population of Pakistan is about 160 million, which is growing at the rate of almost two percent annually. The major population of the country (67 percent) lives in rural areas and depends mainly on agriculture, and about 32 percent of the population lives below the poverty level. GDP growth continues to depend on crop performance.

The total food production in Pakistan is about 25 million tones in 2002/03 as compared to 10 million tones in 1970/71. However it is interesting to state that the consumption of fertilizer per hectare in Pakistan (133 kg approx.) is higher than the world average (94.1 kg/ha) but yield productions are substantially lower. This indicates to a big gap between the supply and demand of agricultural products, which is widening day by day due to the increasing population of the country.

Sustainable Agriculture


Sustainable productivity in our agricultural ecosystems is therefore an important objective. Sustainable agriculture depends on a whole-system approach whose overall goal is the continuing health of the land and people. Therefore it concentrates on long term solutions to problems instead of short term treatment of symptoms.

There are several important constraints to sustainable agriculture and causing low productivity. They include soil degradation (soil salinity, alkalinity, erosion and soil fertility depletion), depletion of water resources, mismanagement of irrigation systems, the distribution of the land holdings and poor farming practices.

The use of farm inputs, particularly of fertilizers, is inadequate and inefficient. Farm energy use is low. The availability of quality seed is limited. Agricultural research is lagging behind the new challenges. Agricultural extension services are not tuned to modern technology.

The flow of information from research to farmers is inadequate. Coordination between policy, research, extension and farmers could be improved. Disbursement of agricultural credit amounts to over Rs.50 billion per annum, but is less than the requirements and is not reaching small farmers.

An inadequate marketing infrastructure results in high marketing costs and losses. The fertilizer recommendations are too general. Soil testing laboratories are not adequately equipped in terms of manpower and equipment. As a result, the majority of the farmers become resource-poor and can not get benefit and therefore, our crop yields are one of the lowest in the world.

Declining land productivity with reduced crop yields has been also a major problem facing our farmers. The major factors contributing to the reduced land productivity is soil impoverishment caused by continuous cropping without addition of adequate mineral fertilizers and manures. Moreover, negative soil nutrient balances (nutrient removal exceeding nutrient application) during our cropping history have resulted in general deterioration of fertility levels. Sustained, high yield agricultural production can be assured once these negative balances are addressed. Crop fertilization is the main tool available.

Fertilizer has played a key role in helping farmers achieve their high level of production. Fertilizers provide essential plant nutrients which are indispensable for producing sufficient and healthy food for the world’s expanding population. Plant nutrients are therefore a vital component of any system of sustainable agriculture. Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and in recent years, zinc, boron and sulfur are the nutrients of most concern in the grain-production regions. Unfortunately our soils are deficient in Nitrogen (100 %), Phosphorus (90%), Zinc (70%) and Boron (55%). Potassium (K) is generally adequate but its deficiency is emerging rapidly. Deficiencies and responses to other nutrients such as iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), and other micronutrients are reported for specific crops and areas. When the soil cannot supply the level of nutrient required for adequate growth, supplemental fertilizer applications become necessary.

Prior to the introduction of fertilizes in Pakistan in the early1950s, the use of fertilizers have increased significantly. Total consumption of nutrients in Pakistan has increased from 5 kg/ha in 1966-67 to 133 kg/ha in 2001-2002. However, it is still much lower when compared with other countries of the world and highly unbalanced to produce enough and quality food to meet the country demand. The crop yields in countries using higher fertilizer rates (e.g. Korea, Japan China, Egypt etc) are two to three times more than Pakistan.

One of the factors responsible for stagnating yields and decreasing fertilizer use efficiency is the current unbalanced fertilizer use. Nutrient balances for many cropping systems are negative. The nitrogen and phosphorus are the most limiting nutrients to crop production but their sufficient use by majority of the smallholder farmers become limiting due to their high costs. Indeed a substantial number of farmers do not use fertilizers and the ones who use fertilizers apply below the recommended rates.

In Pakistan various types of fertilizers are used, some are locally manufactured and others are imported. In our country, most of the fertilizer is used on irrigated wheat, cotton, sugarcane and rice crops. On these crops the nitrogen application rate is close to 75-80 percent of the recommendations, compared with about 20-40 percent, depending on the crop, in the case of phosphate. Hardly 1-2 percent of farmers apply potash; that is usually applied to fruit, vegetable, and sugarcane crops only. Micronutrient deficiencies are common but less than five percent of the farmers apply micronutrient fertilizers.

There are several problems which are impeding the balance and efficient use of fertilizers. These are commonly non-availability of specific fertilizers at right time, ever-increasing prices, improper application methods and time, lack of knowledge among farmers about the need for balanced fertilizer applications, adulteration and inadequate grant of soft loans especially for the small farmers, costituting 75 per cent of our farming community.
The increase of fertilizer use efficiency is also related to ensuring the fertilizer quality. At present, apart from some macro fertilizers produced industrially, there are several mixed macro and micronutrient fertilizers, foliar fertilizers, plant growth stimulants which are not controlled by the government. They are circulated with of fertilizer arbitration organizations, therefore the farmers are always suffering from losses once having bought the adulterated or low-quality fertilizers, and the legitimate fertilizer producers and traders suffer from losses and risks.
Balanced fertilization

Balanced fertilization is one of the most important tools to achieve maximum crop yield. Balanced fertilization can be defined as the rational use of fertilizers and manures for optimum supply of all essential nutrients for maximum crop yield which simultaneously ensures efficiency of fertilizer use promotes synergistic interactions and keeps antagonistic interactions out of the crop production system. Fertilizers are not cheap and therefore, it is essential that they should be efficiently and effectively used to produce maximum increase in crop yields so that farmers receive the best possible outputs from their expenses.

Balanced fertilization does not mean a certain definite proportion of nitrogen, phosphorus and potash or other nutrients to be added in the form of fertilizer, but it has to take into account the availability of nutrients already present in the soil, crop requirement and other factors. It should take into account the crop removal of nutrients, the economics of fertilizers and profitability, farmers’ ability to invest, agro-techniques, soil moisture regime, weed control, plant protection, seed rate, sowing time, soil salinity, alkalinity, physical environment, microbiological condition of the soil, cropping sequence, etc. It is not a state but a dynamic concept.

Balance fertilization is invariably the practice, which enable the farmers to approach practically realizable yield potentials in a cost effective and sustainable manner. Balanced fertilization enhances crop yield, crop quality and farm income; corrects soil nutrient deficiencies, and maintains soil fertility. Several field trials on balance fertilization have proved the yield improvement by 50-100 per cent.

According to a (NFDC; 1999) report, balanced use of fertilizers increased the yields of wheat by 77%, sugarcane 100%, rice 25-100% and cotton by 400%. To reap the benefits of balanced use of fertilizers, our farmers must implement the five key practices (a) apply only those nutrients that will result in economic yield increases (b) apply appropriate nutrient rates (c) apply appropriate sources of fertilizer nutrients (d) apply nutrients at appropriate timing (e) apply using the most effective and practical application techniques.

A balanced fertilization strategy is the only way to ensure a sustainable agriculture that can provide the world population with high quality food while minimizing the impact on the environment. All available knowledge about the crop and the environment where it will be grown must be combined to set up the right combination of nutrients to be applied at each step of the fertilization program.

Suggestions

Among the programs of Ministry of Agriculture, the program of agricultural extension on fertilizers is considered a central one aiming at increasing fertilizer use efficiency, crop yield and agricultural product quality, stabilizing and enhancing the soil fertility.

But unfortunately, due to different reasons, due attention was not paid to this program. However, the following suggestions would be fruitful in promoting the balance use and proper management of fertilizers and increasing crop yields and soil fertility.

• Setting up a united network of agricultural extension on fertilizers with the participation of research institutes, agricultural universities, scientific associations and non-governmental organizations, fertilizer producing and trading companies.

• Surveying the current status of fertilizer use of farmers in all key agricultural areas in the whole country. The surveyed data will be processed to find out the advantages and shortcoming in fertilizer use for some main crops.

• Surveying the current status and capacity of fertilizer supply and service of governmental organizations, collective and private organizations, evaluating the supply capacity and requirement of each fertilizer kind at localities according to short- term and medium -term plants.

• Setting up the network of stable and long-term field experiment on some soil types for some crops in all agro-ecological zones in the whole country in order to exactly assess the nutrient supplying capacity of soils, factors limiting the fertilizer use efficiency (soils, climate and weather, management level, intellectual standard of the people...), direct and residual efficiency of main fertilizer to serve as a basis for establishing the formulae of reasonable fertilization.

• Setting up a network of field experiments to assess the environmental impacts of fertilizers, especially the impacts of fertilizers on soil fertility and agricultural product quality, besides, through this research system identifying the relationship between fertilizers and IPM.

• Organizing the training courses to provide the local extension workers with new knowledge and update new knowledge for them.

• Organizing the training for farmers on the role of each nutrient, symptoms of nutrient shortage and method of reasonable and efficient fertilizer through the farmer’s field schools using the most simple and effective methods.

• Organizing the information and propaganda on fertilizer use guides as well as introduction of new fertilizer through mass-media.

• Printing the fertilizer use guides. In the short term, apart from specific information, a new issue of agricultural extension on fertilizers can be carried out at the periodical of Pakistan Soil Science Society or the periodical of Department of Agriculture extension.

• Working out the regulations on fertilizer quality control aiming at preparing the fertilizer legislation.

• Carrying out the activities of cooperation on agricultural extension on fertilizers with in-country and foreign organizations as well as testing the efficiency of new fertilizers manufactured by in-country as well as foreign companies.

• Establishing the technical support fund to help the enthusiastic farmers having difficulties to form the key farmer class at the grassroots units.

• Developing the long-term human resource development program to improve qualifications of researchers and extension workers to PhD level and also provide for short-term trainings to equip them with knowledge and skills in important areas. Besides, career structure and incentive framework may be introduced to reward quality research and extension work.

Expected Outputs/Benefits


• The farmers provided with basis knowledge of fertilizer: Kind, composition, properties, method of storage, fertilizer use guide (not only for agricultural crops but also for forest trees).

• Agricultural output increase due to increase in crop yield.

• Agricultural product value increase due to increase in quality.

• Fertilizer cost for a product unit reduced, hard foreign currencies economized due to reasonable fertilizer use.

• Balanced fertilization reduces the incidence of plant diseases, such as red-leaf stem blight in cotton as found in various provinces of China. Natural improvements in the plant's ability to resist disease infections result in less need for insecticides and fungicides, which lowers production costs for farmers and reduces chances for negative environmental impact.

• Environmental pollution protected due to decrease in gaseous nitrogen looses as well as nitrate loss by leaching.

• Soil fertility stabilized and enhanced.

In summary all embracing efforts should be made to educate farmers to practice balanced use of fertilizers. Of late, some fertilizer companies and associations have come forward to educate the villagers, publication of literature in regional languages related to balanced use of fertilizers for higher crop yields in a sustainable way. The actual time has come; the farmers, researchers and other related communities should come forward and act in this respect.

The chemical fertilizers are very expensive therefore, should be used judiciously and use manures along with chemical fertilizers for improving the crop yield and soil productivity in a sustainable way. Many more activities are being planned to promote the balanced use of fertilizers. And it is hoped that all these efforts would lead to desired awareness and as a result balanced fertilizer use would become a reality in near future.


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