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Soil-Based Interventions for Economic Returns in India


Affiliations
1 Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Yerpedu 517 619, India
2 Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai 600 020, India
3 Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 400 088, India
 

Available empirical evidence for the association between soil-based interventions and economic returns in India reveals the following. First, integrated nutrient management (INM) is superior to balanced nutrient management (BNM) in terms of yield and economic profit for the cultivation of maize and soybean. Second, incentivizing the usage of INM rather than BNM is likely to provide a better yield and higher income to rice, wheat and potato farmers. Third, more studies on various crops are required to scientifically compare and reach a definite conclusion on the yield and economic returns from different types of fertilizer applications – INM, BNM and organic or biofertilizers. These findings have policy implications in India since the Soil Health Card scheme was centralized in 2015.

Keywords

Community-Based Farming, Crop Yield, Economic Returns, Fertilizers, Soil Interventions.
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  • Soil-Based Interventions for Economic Returns in India

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Authors

Chandra Sekhar Bahinipati
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Tirupati, Yerpedu 517 619, India
Aparajay Kumar Singh
Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai 600 020, India
Unmesh Patnaik
Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies, School of Habitat Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai 400 088, India

Abstract


Available empirical evidence for the association between soil-based interventions and economic returns in India reveals the following. First, integrated nutrient management (INM) is superior to balanced nutrient management (BNM) in terms of yield and economic profit for the cultivation of maize and soybean. Second, incentivizing the usage of INM rather than BNM is likely to provide a better yield and higher income to rice, wheat and potato farmers. Third, more studies on various crops are required to scientifically compare and reach a definite conclusion on the yield and economic returns from different types of fertilizer applications – INM, BNM and organic or biofertilizers. These findings have policy implications in India since the Soil Health Card scheme was centralized in 2015.

Keywords


Community-Based Farming, Crop Yield, Economic Returns, Fertilizers, Soil Interventions.

References





DOI: https://doi.org/10.18520/cs%2Fv124%2Fi5%2F547-553