Bio Innovations is Crucial for Regenerative Agriculture

Explaining the theme of the Bio-Agri 2021, India’s biggest conference, “Bio Innovations for Regenerative Agriculture” Dr Venkatesh Devanur, Secretary of BIPA-Bio Agri Input  Producers Association said, “India is the biggest exporter of Rice”.

For every 1kg rice, we produce we consume 5000 litres of water which means that many litres of water are also exported. Can’t we look at innovations to address this? He asked. He gave many more such examples. The two-day conference focused on Bio-Innovations. 

Speaking further, Dr Venkatesh said, 1200 MT of Nitrogen is in the air above every Hectares of land. 32 Million Tonnes of Urea is used in India and the Government of India spends about Rs 75,000 Cr as a subsidy! “Nitrogen Fixing Bacteria can Atmospheric Nitrogen Soil and bring down import bill for Naphtha raw material for Urea and bring down subsidy and improve soil health,” Dr Venkatesh said.

Phosphorus comes from mining sources. In the next 30-35 years we will reach Phosphorus Peaking meaning quantum used will be equal to quantum mined he added. Thereafter, the demand-supply gap will increase resulting huge increase in prices. Further, Over 60 % of Phosphorus fertilizers applied gets fixed in Soil. Phosphorus Solubilising Bacteria solubilizes Fixed Phosphorus in soil and make it available to plants.

Potassium is a very expensive fertilizer and produced by a few companies resulting in Oligopoly. Over 70% of Potassium gets wasted in soil.  Potassium Solubilising Bacteria can help reduce the loss and improve soil health.

“Silica requirement for crops is more than twice of NPK requirements! Silica Solubilising Bacteria have declined in soil. If Silica uptake is optimized - plant health and drought tolerance will improve,” Dr Venaktesh told.

Bio Agri Inputs help increase in Soil Organic Carbon making soil a better ecosystem for the growth of soil Microbes, Dr Venkatesh informed.

“Soil health gives better plant health, that gives better environmental health and ultimately it leads to better human health.  The Bio Agri Conference is held to look at possible solutions to all these and many more problems,” he added.