With a view to meeting the food deficiency, dependence on chemical fertilizer in Bangladesh has increased manifold over the past decades. No doubt, this has resulted in boosting crop production. But as a result of the overwhelming reliance on chemical fertilizer, crop lands are facing dire consequences, manifested in declined organic matters.
It is high time we thought seriously about a proper solution to this fast approaching crisis and moved forward with an appropriate policy for promoting the use of organic fertilizer so as to replenish our land with enough nutrients. According to agriculturists, standard cultivable soil should have minimum 3.4 per cent organic matters but in most areas in Bangladesh it is in between 1-1.7 per cent and in some areas it is less than 1 per cent. Due to changing conditions of soil fertility management with emphasis on organic matter, organic fertilizers can play a vital role in restoring fertility of soils.
Organic fertilizer ensures balanced nutrition and maintenance of long-term fertility. It is prepared by decomposing biodegradable wastes which include paper, leaves, fruit peelings, leftover foods, fruit juices, cow dung, poultry manure, biogas slurry, oilcake, blood meal, bone meal etc. Chemical fertilizers are chemically/synthetically manufactured in factories while organic fertilizer is biologically produced at homesteads, farmyards and farms.
Continuous use of organic fertilizers increases the micronutrient and nitrogen content in the soil. Beside supplying essential plant nutrients, organic fertilizer, irrespective of its sources, produces desirable physical, chemical and biological changes needed for the soil.
The use of the organic fertilizer ensures that the food items produced are free of harmful chemicals. As a result, the end consumers who eat these organic products are less prone to diseases such as cancer, strokes, and skin disorders, as compared to those who consume food items produced by using chemical fertilizers.
In addition to the on-farm production possibilities of organic fertilizers, organic fertilizers help maintain balanced soil structure and increase nutrient-holding capacity. Therefore, a farmer who practises organic farming for many years will require far less fertilizer, because his soil is already rich in essential nutrients. Organic fertilizers, because of their being bio-degradable, do not cause environmental pollution. On the other hand, chemical fertilizers contaminate both soil and water, which is a major cause of many diseases and is responsible for extinction of a number of plants, animals and insect species.
Scientists have found high concentration of toxic chemicals like cadmium, lead and chromium in chemical fertilizers used in Bangladesh. About 40 per cent urea and non-urea fertilizers available in the market has been found to be adulterated, as revealed in a recent sample analysis of different kinds of fertilizers by the Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI). The SRDI has identified highest 40,258 ppm (parts per million) cadmium and 31,292 ppm lead in locally produced zinc sulphate available in the local market. This amount is alarmingly higher as allowable level of cadmium and lead is only 10ppm and 100 ppm respectively. Annually, around 50,000 tones of zinc sulphate are used in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh has good prospect for production of plentiful organic fertilizer. Cities generate wastes approximately 13,332 ton per day, the majority of which are organic in nature. The national 3R (reduce, reuse and recycle) strategy of the government strongly encourages waste recycling to produce and promote the use of bio fertilizer. Estimates indicate that about 45 million tons of straw, 35 million tons of dung and 5 million tons of poultry waste are available annually. Besides, there are many other materials such as water hyacinth, kitchen wastes, slaughter house residues, industrial wastes and non-edible portion of fruits and vegetables that constitute potential sources of raw materials for production of organic fertilizer.
Agriculturists say that a number of problems are hindering the usage, production and marketing of organic fertilizer in the country. The bottlenecks include lack of policy support to encourage and produce organic fertilizer, no temporary licensing mechanism for entrepreneurs, no defined procedure for the renewal of the licence, expensive procedure of laboratory testing for licensing, lack of awareness among the entrepreneurs/farmers about the economic potential of recycling organic wastes, no institution set up in the local bodies to convert organic solid waste into organic fertilizer. Besides, dearth of trained manpower, insufficient collection of solid waste, limited or no access for entrepreneurs to collect municipal solid waste from the municipality, lack of partnering initiative among public, private, community people, lack of adequate financing facility for entrepreneurs are critical hindrances.
The writer is a journalist.
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