The Art of Living's farm venture Sri Sri Naisargik has launched Vardaan, an organic bio-fertiliser it presents as a nature-based option for improving phosphate availability and soil health ahead of India's rabi season, Rural Voice reported on 31 October.
Vardaan is a phosphate-rich organic manure made with what the company calls cold-pressed technology, intended to keep its beneficial microbes active. It contains 14 microbial consortia that, the company says, convert some forms of soil phosphate that plants cannot use into forms they can absorb.
Phosphate is essential for root growth, energy transfer and plant development, but much of the phosphate farmers apply can become locked up by soil minerals, cutting the efficiency of fertiliser. Instead of supplying nutrients directly, as conventional fertilisers do, biological inputs such as Vardaan aim to improve nutrient availability through soil microbial processes, and the company is positioning it as an alternative to DAP-centred practice.
It is meant to be applied during soil preparation or early crop growth to help roots establish, and can be used in nutrient programmes for cereals, pulses and horticultural crops, subject to crop-specific advice. The company itself says use should follow soil-test results, crop nutrient needs and agronomic advice, so whether it can replace DAP depends on each soil and crop.
Sri Sri Naisargik links the launch to concern about falling soil organic carbon, nutrient-use efficiency and rising cultivation costs, and advocates combining adequate nutrient supply with microbial activity and soil health management. The report gives no field trial results for the product.
Photo: Dave Spicer / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Source: Rural Voice
Comments
(0)