Government keen on reducing chemical fertilizer use by 10 percent: Gowda

The government is keen on reducing the use of chemical fertilisers by at least 10 per cent to promote organic fertilizers and has started giving subsidies for city compost, Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister DV Sadananda Gowda said in the Lok Sabha on Monday. "The government's intention is to reduce at least 10 per cent of the fertilizers being used by the farmers, thereby promoting the use of organic fertilizers. So, we have started giving subsidies for city compost and we are encouraging it. Two States of the North East - Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim - have already been branded as organic states," he said.

Gowda added that fertilisers should be available to farmers at minimum cost and more than Rs. 72,000 crores worth of subsidies has been given to them by the Centre. He said total use of fertilizers, especially urea, should be minimized.

"The Prime Minister wants to see that by the end of 2021, the import should be minimized. At present, we are importing about 65 lakh metric tonnes. We want this to be stopped. For that, several initiatives have been taken and five factories which were shut during 2002 are being revived," he said. BJP lawmaker from Sultanpur, Maneka Gandhi, asked a question about neonicotinoid pesticide range, saying that it is one of the most dangerous pesticides and termed it "pure poison".

She said these have been brought to India a decade ago and almost every country has banned them. Gandhi said India was using neonicotinoid pesticides very, very frequently and added that the bee population has been reduced to almost half of what it was.

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