Bio Innovations for regenerative agriculture

HYDERABAD, 19 November 2021: 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 is 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 air above every Hectare of land. 32 Million Tonnes of Urea is used in India and Govt of India spends about INR 75,000 Cr as 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 next 30-35 years we will reach Phosphorus Peaking meaning quantum use will be equal to quantum mined, he added. Thereafter, demand supply gap will increase resulting in huge increase in prices. Further, Over 60 percent of Phosphorus fertilizers applied get Fixed in Soil. Phosphorus Solubilising Bacteria solubilised Fixed Phosphorus in soil and made it available to plants.

Potassium is a very expensive fertilizer and produced by few companies resulting in Oligopoly. Over 70 percent 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 optimised - 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 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 BioAgri Conference is held to look at possible solutions to all these and many more problems,  he explained.