Set up Indian standards for good agricultural practices: IMMA

New Delhi: To make agriculture environmentally sustainable, the government needs to come up with Indian standards for good agricultural practices in line with global standards, the Indian Micro-Fertilizers Manufacturers Association (IMMA) said on Friday.

There should be standards for balanced use of micro-nutrients as well, it said.

Besides, it called for designing a national level campaign to create awareness about the importance of balanced nutrition for crops.

These recommendations were made at at the National Crop Nutrition Summit 2018 held here on Friday.

IMMA said in a statement that it recommended setting up of Indian Good Agricultural Practices (IND-GAP) on lines of Euro-GAP and Global-GAP standards, practised in developed nations, for making agriculture agronomically robust and economically viable.

"The most alarming trend in crop production is the excessive use of pesticides in India. These poisons for pest control are, in many cases, the highest cost to the farmers. Reducing this cost will contribute to raising net farm incomes," it said.

One of the proven methods to prevent pest and disease incidence is balanced nutrition, it said.

"It is unfortunate that most farmers concentrate on curative pesticide application instead on crop nutrition. A healthy crop which has been supplied with all the essential major, secondary and micro-nutrients in a balanced form throughout the crop cycle will be resistant to most pests and diseases," IMMA added.

The micro-fertiliser industry also sought improved set of laws, parity in GST and other regulatory matters with NPK fertilisers.