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Practice Adequate and Balanced Nutrient Management to Make Pulse Cultivation Profitable in West Bengal
For a population of 80 million people in West Bengal, the pulse requirement is 1.2 million tonnes (Mt). Pulses are cultivated on about 274 thousand hectares in West Bengal, and total production is about 220 thousand tonnes. Therefore, current production of pulses in the state is about 18% of the total requirement.
Under prevailing market conditions, farmers should stress pulses cultivation to boost their profit and to offset the gap between demand and availability in the state. With the improvement in irrigation facilities, farmers have given more emphasis to crops like potato, wheat and vegetables, which has lead to area decline under pulses. Proper land preparation, proper time of sowing, selections of better quality seed etc. are always neglected. And most importantly, fertilizer application is little or nonexistent resulting in very low productivity.
Approximate current status of fertilizer use in pulses in West Bengal
Crop | Area ('000 ha) | Fertilized area ('000 ha) | N | P2O5 | K2O | Total |
Tonnes |
Chickpea | 23 | 7 | 198 | 156 | 7 | 361 |
Pigeonpea | 3 | 1 | 22 | 17 | 1 | 40 |
Other pulses | 172 | 54 | 1459 | 1151 | 49 | 2659 |
Total pulses | 203 | 64 | 1726 | 1361 | 58 | 3145 |
Source: Ali et al. (2002). Fertilizer News, Vol. 47 (11).
Whatever little is spent on fertilizer inputs goes entirely on nitrogenous fertilizer. Under such situation, cultivation of pulses will never be remunerative to farmers. This has led to the large gap between requirement and production of pulses (and oilseeds) in West Bengal.
*Figures in parenthesis denotes yield in kg/ha at the corresponding production
As is apparent in the Figure above, both area and production of pulses have declined over the last 50 years and yield has essentially remained stagnant. However, productivity of pulses in the state could be improved by adopting an improved package of practices, including application of nutrients in required quantities.
In districts, where cropping intensity is low, inclusion of pulses in the cropping sequence can be a profitable option for the farmers. Besides, replacing low yielding conventional crops with good yielding pulses would not only improve farmer profit but would also help ease the pressure on the state exchequer to import pulses to satisfy state demand.
To increase productivity of pulses, the general mindset of farmers that pulses can be cultivated without fertilizers needs to be changed and fertilizer application based on soil analysis and a yield target is essential. In West Bengal, N, P2O5, K2O applied at 20:50:20 kg/ha is recommended, but this is seldom applied. Even this rate is low for perpetually starved soils growing high-yielding varieties. Besides adequate doses of NPK, sulfur (S) and molybdenum (Mo) are also needed for proper growth and yield of pulses. Pulses grow better on neutral soils and application of lime is necessary in the acidic soils of North Bengal and in the red and lateritic belts. The following example clearly shows the advantage of balanced fertilizer application on yield of Green gram and Black gram in the red and lateritic soils of West Bengal.
Effect of balanced fertilization on yield of pulses
Treatments | Green gram | Black gram |
Yield (kg/ha) |
N0P0K0 | 1014 | 942 |
NP0K0 | 1015 | 944 |
NPK0 | 1076 | 1002 |
NPK | 1145 | 1304 |
NPKB | 1271 | 1342 |
NPKMo | 1325 | 1384 |
NPKBMo | 1398 | 1409 |
SE (±) | 1.70 | 1.16 |
CD | 5.22 | 3.56 |
Source: Chattopadhyay, G. N. (2003), Personal Communication.
The following Table shows the potentiality of fertilizer consumption at the current recommended rate, assuming a 100% adoption of recommended levels of nutrient application by farmers. This Table also shows potentiality of consumption, assuming 41% adoption in the 10th plan (2002-2007) and 45.8% adoption in the 11th plan (2007-2012) period, at the current average state application level.
Estimated annual fertilizer requirement of pulses in West Bengal (10th & 11th plan periods)
Application/Adoption levels | Area ('000 ha) | Target area ('000 ha) | N | P2O5 | K2O | Total |
Tonnes |
At recommended level
100% adoption | 203 | 203 | 4058 | 8116 | 4058 | 16232 |
At current application level
41% adoption (10th Plan) | 203 | 85 | 2284 | 1802 | 76 | 4163 |
At current application level
45.8% adoption (11th Plan) | 203 | 93 | 2509 | 1979 | 84 | 4572 |
Source: Ali et al. (2002). Fertilizer News, Vol. 47 (11).
It is clear that pulses can be a major component of the current crop diversification efforts of the State Agriculture Department of West Bengal, provided balanced and adequate nutrient management is adopted. This also provides a good opportunity to improve the consumption level of nutrients in the State. With this goal in mind, PPIC-IP is currently collaborating with the Pulses and Oilseeds Research Station of the Govt. of West Bengal in a yield maximization programme of pulses.
For more information please contact our Regional Director, Dr. Kaushik Majumdar
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