Soil Health & Farm Practices

Fertiliser use is heavily skewed towards nitrogen

The Department of Fertilizers told the Rajya Sabha in March 2026 that India's average N:P:K consumption ratio is about 9.8 : 3.7 : 1, "significantly skewed toward nitrogen compared to the recommended 4:2:1 ratio, reflecting heavy reliance on urea". A study of Fertiliser Association of India data placed Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in a "very wide" band above 20 : 5 : 1, while Tamil Nadu and Kerala were close to 4 : 2 : 1. ICAR's position is that no single ideal ratio fits every crop, soil and region, so the 4:2:1 comparison is a national benchmark rather than a field prescription. Evidence confidence: High.

1 sub-problem

Nearly 98 million hectares of land are degraded, and soil erosion has no periodic national survey

The Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India, published by ISRO's Space Applications Centre, estimated land degradation and desertification at 97.84 million hectares in 2018-19. Separately, ICAR's harmonised assessment cited by the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (2010) found soil erosion above 10 tonnes per hectare per year on 92.4 million hectares of cultivable land. In March 2022 the Ministry of Agriculture told Parliament that there is no periodic scientific survey of the extent and nature of soil erosion and land degradation; the assessments that exist use different methods and are not directly comparable, and the degraded area is not all farmland. Evidence confidence: Medium — large, credible estimates that are dated and methodologically inconsistent.

1 sub-problem

Paddy stubble is still burned in Punjab and Haryana every harvest, though far less than before

Satellite monitoring under the ISRO protocol recorded 5,114 farm fire incidents in Punjab and 662 in Haryana in the 2025 paddy season (15 September to 30 November) — the lowest recorded under the Commission for Air Quality Management's framework, down 53 per cent from 2024 in both states and by more than 90 per cent from 2021. The fall followed state and district action plans, crop residue management machinery, ex-situ use of paddy straw and enforcement. Burning is recorded here as a farm practice; its effect on air quality belongs to environment. Evidence confidence: High for fire counts, which measure detected fires rather than area burned.