ISLAMABAD: Pakistan should devise policies to promote nature-based farming to not only protect soil fertility but also enable the people to get healthy food products, says a report published by WealthPK on Friday, quoting experts.
Most of water scarcity issues in high-risk basins are caused by agricultural irrigation, endangering food systems, community water sources, and the ecosystem. As a result of these pressures, the global agricultural sector is more responsible for biodiversity loss, habitat damage, soil degradation and natural resource depletion than any other industry.
So, producers should shift to agricultural practices that regenerate landscapes in order to ensure the sustainability of food systems and, by extension, human life. In this regard, nature-based solutions can help improve agricultural and food production resilience while also reducing climate change impact and improving the environment.
Talking about the nature-based solutions, Mr Sajjad, a senior scientific officer at the Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC), told WealthPK that fertilisers brought from animal and plant origins are organic fertilisers, also called the organic-based fertilisers.
“Animal manure is mostly used in rural areas of Pakistan to produce crops. Some of the natural fertilisers that are used in Pakistan are poultry manure, farm yard manure, and green manure.
These fertilisers provide phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen to lands compared to urea and diammonium phosphate, thus keeping their health intact in the long run,” Sajjad told INP-WealthPK during a recent interview.
He said organic food has high demand globally and countries are turning toward organic farming because artificial chemicals used in farms are not only harming the land but also causing harm to the crops and food grown there. Resultantly, it is causing major health issues.
“Organic fertilisers are beneficial in terms of the land health, cost, and most importantly, they are pest-free.”
Sajjad told WealthPK that currently a lot of research is being done in Pakistan on organic fertilisers to promote and enhance their use in growing crops.
“When we spray pesticides on crops, they absorb food and damage the nutrient effects, and when we consume such foods we get infected with different diseases,” he said, adding that production of organic fertilisers is cost-effective compared with big costs borne on production of chemical fertilisers.
“Currently, the price of DAP is around Rs9,000 per 40-kilogramme bag, and the same goes for urea. Moreover, to meet the country’s needs, these fertilisers are imported at the expense of precious foreign exchange.”
Sajjad suggested that moving towards organic fertilisers will not only keep soil fertility intact, but will also help the country cope with climate change affects through sustainable and eco-friendly farming.
He said that countries are now focusing on agricultural production organically to keep their citizens healthy.
Sajjad, however, said currently there is no proper system to introduce organic farming in Pakistan.
“Research in organic farming only exists on paper, and a tiny number of small farmers are using organic fertilisers, most commonly compost,” he pointed out, stressing that there is a lot of room to work on this sector.
may cost it adversely as global markets are gradually bracing for organic products. -INP
