ML Jat, Director General of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)

The government is planning to roll out a soil health policy soon for which the first draft is ready, said ML Jat, director general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), without disclosing further details. However, he said that under the policy the government targets to create 1,00,000 soil health entrepreneurs in the country.

“We’ve been discussing with a range of stakeholders over past one year to launch the Bharat Soil Health Policy. A draft is ready. We did a lot of regional consultations as well,” Jat said a roundtable on fertiliser policy, organised by policy think tank ICRIER. But how to implement the policy is a major challenge for its success, he added.

“We are also now working towards reaching out to each and every farmer (with regard to soil health issue) and that needs a different approach. So, we are discussing of soil health entrepreneurs and our target is 100,000 such entrepreneurs. Soon we are going to launch at least 1,000 of those soil health entrepreneurs and then we go forward (for expansion) under public private partnership as well as through CSR funding,” he said. The approach is to create the awareness, and empower the local people to make the balance use of fertilisers a success, he added.

On resistance to use of nano fertilisers, which was launched to reduce application of granular chemical fertilisers, by many farmers, Jat said: “On the the nano fertilizers, I think we were in a big hurry...That one of the problems with the Nano was ‘one bottle versus one bag’. I think that generalised communication was a major problem. They didn’t indicate that one bottle is needed at the last stage.”

When nano-Urea was launched by cooperative major IFFCO in 2021, the government claimed that one conventional 45-Kg bag of granular urea having 46 per cent nitrogen (N) could be replaced with one bottle of 500 ml nano-Urea. Even many ministers claimed that they got better yield by replacing granular Urea with nano-Urea.

Jat, however, said that there is a potential of nano fertilisers if those are targetted properly. He mentioned that a presentation was made last year to the principle secretary to Prime Minister on what are the learnings and way forward in nano fertilisers. ICAR has also started very systematic research at 15 locations in the country last year and it has been generating hard evidence, he added.

The iCAR DG further said that over 100 districts have been identified where farmers are using more than double the fertilizer required. “If you can skip even one application and apply water as a spray ther, still there will be no problem,” he said.

Stressing on using indigenous minerals to boost crop yield and reduce dependence on chemical fertilisers, he said: “we haven’t explored a lot of potassium sources like gluconite and others. And now we are talking about this Gobardhan scheme...So organo-mineral is another source of the nutrient what we can generate within the country. We should be exploring those opportunities.”

Jat also said that India can replace one-third of its chemical fertilisers through organic resources and others through judicious use. For which a policy is needed or incentives for the farmers have to be there. “Biologicals are largely unexplored field. We haven’t harnessed even 0.1 per cent of the power of the biologicals. India has got a lot of diversity in terms of the biologicals,” he noted.

On recalibration of fertilizer policy, he said one is transitioning from subsidy led inefficiency to efficiency laid incentive while secondly from import dependence to using maximum indigenous resources as crop nutrients. Highlighting that ICAR has been issuing advisories on soil health and application of correct dosage of fertilisers, Jat wondered how to make use of those advisories until and unless there is a mechanism in place.

He also said that ICAR has started focussing on nutrient efficiency in its crop breeding programme as previously it was only about raising productivity.

Published on October 23, 2026