Re-popularization of Sesbania green manuring

Abstract

Farmers are concerned about the net benefit from an agricultural practice. They will adopt a technology, when net benefit from the practice is more than the existing practice. Of course, the technology should be user friendly and the profit margin should be reasonably high. Provision of incentive to Sesbania growing farmers at INR 1,324 per ha will help in wide adoption of this eco-friendly practice. Considering potential cultivated area of Sesbania as green manure in about 20 M ha in irrigated and rainfed lowland ecologies, about 1 Mt N can be saved which corresponds to 9% of annual urea production in India. This will contribute substantially in fulfilling the Government target of reducing urea consumption by 50% till the end of 2022. Beneficial residual effect on soil due to Sesbania green manuring may avoid the need of increasing fertilizer application rate.