UPSC Essentials | Mains answer practice — GS 3 : Questions on balanced fertilisation and coral bleaching (Week 50)

QUESTION 2

What is balanced fertilisation? Discuss the importance of neem coated urea.

General points on the structure of the answers

Introduction

QUESTION 1: Why coral reefs in India are undergoing severe bleaching?

Introduction:

— Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse marine ecosystems on Earth. Corals grow throughout geological time spans and have been around for around 200 million years.

— Coral reefs are vital components of the marine ecosystem, providing home for vegetation and wildlife. Coral reefs are ecologically significant because they are the ocean’s equivalent of the tropical rain forest in terms of species richness and biological productivity.

— Coral reefs promote the establishment of related eco-systems that support important habitats, fisheries, and livelihoods.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

— Coral bleaching occurs when the water gets too warm. In such conditions, corals eject the microscopic algae that dwell in their tissues, essentially producing nourishment for themselves.

— Without these algae, coral tissues become transparent, revealing their white skeletons. This is known as coral bleaching. Bleached corals do not die, but they are at risk of malnutrition and disease. According to scientists, corals can survive for around two weeks without algae.

— Corals experience thermal stress when sea surface temperatures exceed 1 degree celsius above the maximum mean temperature. This stress worsens if the high temperatures persist over a period of time.

— Scientists use the Degree Heating Week (DHW) indicator to calculate accumulated heat stress in a given area over the previous 12 weeks, adding up any temperatures that surpass the bleaching threshold during that time period. This is estimated in Celsius-weeks.

— The western Indian Ocean region saw the greatest increase in marine heatwaves, at approximately 1.5 events per decade, followed by the north Bay of Bengal at 0.5 events per decade.

— An underwater assessment revealed that 85% of the corals in the Gulf of Mannar near the Tamil Nadu coast bleached following the marine heatwave in May 2020.

Conclusion:

— The heat waves threaten livelihoods of coastal communities, tourism and fisheries sectors, and critical marine habitats, including seagrass meadows.

— Similar to corals, seagrass meadows, kelp forests are experiencing detrimental impacts such as impaired photosynthesis, reduced growth, and hindered reproductive functions due to the heatwaves.

— Coral reefs are present in the areas of Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep Islands and Malvan.

(Source: Why are Lakshadweep coral reefs undergoing severe bleaching? by Shaju Philip, incois.gov.in)

Points to Ponder

Heat waves

Importance of corals

Related Previous Year Questions

Describe the key points of the revised Global Air Quality Guidelines (AQGs) recently released by the World Health Organisation (WHO). How are these different from its last update in 2005? What changes in India’s National Clean Air Programme are required to achieve revised standards? (2021)

Explain the causes and effects of coastal erosion in India. What are the available coastal management techniques for combating the hazard? (2022)

QUESTION 2: What is balanced fertilisation? Discuss the importance of neem coated urea.

Introduction:

— The requirement of nutrients such as Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash are soil and crop specific. The use of right ratio of nutrients as per soil or crop requirement is known as “balanced fertilisation”.

— Balanced fertilisation — discouraging farmers from using too much urea, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), or muriate of potash (MOP), which only contain primary nutrients in high concentrations — is likely to be a significant policy priority for the government.

— Urea usage reached a record 35.8 million tonnes (mt) in the fiscal year ending March 2024, up 16.9% from 30.6 mt in 2013-14.

— The consumption of urea, which contains 46% nitrogen (N), actually decreased between 2016-17 and 2017-18, which was attributable to the mandated coating of all urea with neem oil in May 2015.

Body:

You may incorporate some of the following points in the body of your answer:

— Fertilisers are basically food for crops, containing nutrients necessary for plant growth and grain yields. Balanced fertilisation means supplying these primary (N, phosphorus-P and potassium-K), secondary (sulphur-S, calcium, magnesium) and micro (iron, zinc, copper, manganese, boron, molybdenum) nutrients in the right proportion, based on soil type and the crop’s own requirement at different growth stages.

Neem coated urea

— In 2015, the Government of India took a transformational decision to introduce 100% neem coating on all subsidised agricultural grade urea in the country.

— Neem oil used to coat urea is said to have 150 ppm azadirachtin. This active component in neem oil has a benzene ring structure similar to chlorobenzene, which is found in transformer or cutting oils.

— Neem coating was designed to prevent unlawful diversion of highly subsidised urea for non-agricultural use such as plywood, dye, bovine feed, and synthetic milk production.

— Neem oil was said to operate as a minor nitrification inhibitor, allowing for a more progressive release of nitrogen. Improved nitrogen utilisation efficiency reduced the number of urea bags required per acre.

Conclusion:

— The nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) system was instituted in April 2010 and was expected to promote balanced fertilisation.

— Under it, the government fixed a per-kg subsidy for N, P, K and S. The subsidy on any fertiliser was, thereby, linked to its nutrient content.

— The underlying idea was to induce product innovation and wean away farmers from urea, DAP (18% N and 46% P content) and MOP (60% K), in favour of complex fertilisers containing N, P, K, S and other nutrients in balanced proportions with lower concentrations.

(Source: How the next government will push ‘balanced fertilisation’ by Harish Damodaran, http://www.fert.nic.in)

Points to Ponder

Nutrient-based subsidy

DAP

Related Previous Year Questions

What are the direct and indirect subsidies provided to farm sector in India? Discuss the issues raised by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in relation to agricultural subsidies. (2023)

Explain various types of revolutions, took place in Agriculture after Independence in India. How these revolutions have helped in poverty alleviation and food security in India? (2017)

Previous Mains Answer Practice

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 49)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 1 (Week 48)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 48)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 2 (Week 49)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 49)

UPSC Essentials: Mains answer practice — GS 3 (Week 48)

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