From Plate to Plough: For farmers, the next big idea

PM has asked them to halve urea consumption by 2022. But this cannot be achieved till the price of the fertiliser remains artificially low.

Written by Ashok Gulati , Ranjana Roy | Published: December 18, 2017 1:32 am

There is talk of direct benefit transfer (DBT) of subsidies and the Modi government seems to have agreed on the idea in principle. (AP Photo)

In his ‘Mann ki Baat’ on November 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked farmers to cut urea consumption by half by 2022. He cited an example of farmers in Tohu village in Himachal Pradesh’s Hamirpur district who have increased wheat productivity by three times, reduced urea consumption significantly through the use of soil health cards (SHCs) and increased their income by Rs 5,000 to 6,000 per acre. This is indeed an outstanding achievement. The question, however, is whether the feat of Tohu’s farmers can be scaled up at the all-India level by 2022, as the PM has desired? And if so, how?