Bengaluru: Close on the heels of initiating steps to convert Joida taluk in Uttara Kannada district into Karnataka’s first ‘Organic Taluk’, the state govt has now drawn up plans to declare Pandavapura taluk in Mandya district as the second organic taluk by adopting a zero-fertiliser policy. Agriculture minister N Cheluvarayaswamy informed the Legislative Council on Wednesday that efforts are underway to promote natural farming practices across the taluk without the use of chemical supplements.Responding in detail to a calling attention motion raised by BJP MLC Dr Dhananjaya Sarji, the minister acknowledged the need for a gradual shift towards natural farming and sustainable agricultural practices. Raising concerns over the excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, Dr Sarji urged the govt to strengthen the implementation of the soil health card programme. “Whatever the chemicals used by farmers as an agricultural input is ending up polluting our water bodies and rivers, triggering severe ailments, including cancer and other related diseases,” he said.Referring to health data, Sarji added: “Based on the 2024 report, as many as 1.56 million new cancer cases were detected in India, with 8.7 lakh deaths. In Karnataka alone, there are 2.30 lakh cancer patients, with around 25,000 deaths annually. The state also added 87,000 new cancer cases subsequently.” He further pointed out that the use of pesticides and fertilisers in Karnataka remains high compared to national averages.“The national usage of pesticide is 0.6 kg per hectare, but in Karnataka it is alarmingly high at 1 to 1.5 kg per hectare. Similarly, against the national average fertiliser usage of 135 kg per hectare, it is between 120 to 130 kg per hectare in Karnataka. We increased our chemical usage from 3 million metric tonnes in 2021–22 to 3.2 million metric tonnes in 2023–24. More than 50% of food samples in the country were found to contain pesticide residues, sometimes exceeding safe limits,” Sarji said.Acknowledging these concerns, Cheluvarayaswamy said the govt was creating awareness about the adverse effects of excessive chemical use in farming. “We constantly sampled soil from various parts of the state and distributed soil health cards after evaluating these samples at accredited testing labs. Besides, farmers are being encouraged through our agricultural universities to use organic manure and bio-fertilisers as part of sustainable farming,” the minister said. “In fact, we took up an initiative to help farmers practise natural farming in 1.25 lakh acres across Karnataka. The recent state budget also announced the ‘Vasudhamrita’ programme to promote bio-fertilisers,” he added.
