The Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) content has come down to 0.3 - 0.4 per cent in the country. It is well below the acceptable limit and is a cause for concern, said N.K. Krishna Kumar, Deputy Director General (Horticulture), Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi.
He was here on a day’s visit recently to attend a workshop on banana characterisation.
He said that the SOC should be between 1 to 1.5 per cent. But it had been coming down rapidly because of increasing atmospheric temperature, over exploitation, extensive mining of soil fertility, soil degradation, inappropriate soil tillage, poor crop management, indiscriminate use of fertiliser, and accelerated soil erosion. The ICAR had been working on a project to increase SOC with the agricultural institute across the country.
There was a need to reduce over dependency on pesticides and fertilizers. Bio fertilisation should be promoted instead of synthetic fertilizers.
Mr. Kumar said the rate of post-harvest loss on horticultural products was between 15-20 per cent, which was certainly high. It was mainly because of unscientific method of transportation and ripening, lack of cold storage facilities, and marketing issues.
He said Tamil Nadu had been making a good progress on reduction of post harvest loss than a few States in North India.
The loss was 10 to 12 per cent in Tamil Nadu. As far as mango was concerned, the rate of post-harvest loss in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu was between 7 per cent and 8 per cent as against 30 to 40 per cent in Bihar. However, Gujarat in North India was doing well in minimising post-harvest loss.
Stating that Theni in Tamil Nadu had become a standout region in the country on promoting tissue culture banana plants and grapes, he said a study indicated that the progressive farmers had brought down the post-harvest loss to a great extent while drastically increasing the production. The model could be propagated throughout the country.
On Tamil Nadu’s rainfall pattern, Mr. Kumar said although it was a rainfall-deficit State, it had been getting rain in October, November, and December on account of northeast monsoon when almost entire India did not receive rain during that period.
It was a real strength for the State to boost horticulture production. Hence, the agricultural and horticultural plan of the State could be revisited on that line.
