Group wants new order on MGNREGA workers revoked

Certain groups has asked to discontinue manual attendance for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) work sites with more than 20 workers and use a mobile phone-based application.

What is MGNREGA?

The MGNREGA stands for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act of 2005.

This is labour law and social security measure that aims to guarantee the ‘Right to Work’.

The act was first proposed in 1991 by P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Features of the scheme

MGNREGA is unique in not only ensuring at least 100 days of employment to the willing unskilled workers, but also in ensuring an enforceable commitment on the implementing machinery i.e., the State Governments, and providing a bargaining power to the labourers.

The failure of provision for employment within 15 days of the receipt of job application from a prospective household will result in the payment of unemployment allowance to the job seekers.

Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.

Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.

What is so unique about it?

MGNREGA is unique in not only ensuring at least 100 days of employment to the willing unskilled workers, but also in ensuring an enforceable commitment on the implementing machinery i.e., the State Governments, and providing a bargaining power to the labourers.

The failure of provision for employment within 15 days of the receipt of job application from a prospective household will result in the payment of unemployment allowance to the job seekers.

Any Indian citizen above the age of 18 years who resides in rural India can apply for the NREGA scheme. The applicant should have volunteered to do unskilled work.

Employment is to be provided within 5 km of an applicant’s residence, and minimum wages are to be paid.

Thus, employment under MGNREGA is a legal entitlement.

Sao Joao Festival

As in every monsoon, Catholics in Goa will celebrate Sao Joao, the feast of St John the Baptist.

What is Sao Joao and where is it celebrated in Goa?

In Goa, Catholics celebrate all the feasts of the Roman Catholic Church, which include the feast of St John the Baptist on June 24.

John the Baptist is the person who he had baptised Jesus Christ on the river Jordan.

Traditionally, there are spirited Sao Joao festivities in the villages of Cortalim in South Goa and Harmal, Baga, Siolim and Terekhol in North Goa.

However, over the years, pool parties and private Sao Joao parties in Goa have been a “complete package of merriment and joy” for tourists.

Course of celebration

The celebrations will include revellers sporting crowns made of fruits, flowers and leaves, and the major draw of the feast is the water bodies – wells, ponds, fountains, rivers – in which the revellers take the “leap of joy”.

Enjoyed by children and adults alike, the festival also includes playing the traditional gumott (percussion instrument), a boat festival, servings of feni, and a place of pride for new sons-in-law.

What does jumping into water bodies symbolise?

The youngsters in Goa celebrate this occasion with revelry and perform daredevil feats, by jumping into over flowing wells or rivulets.

The boys are found merrily jumping into the water to commemorate the leap of joy, which St John is said to have taken in the womb of his mother St Elizabeth when virgin Mary visited her.

What India needs to do to reduce its fertiliser bill

The global prices of urea, DAP, MOP, phosphoric acid, ammonia and LNG have soared by two to two-and-a-half times in the last year

Resource richness of Indian agriculture

No country has as much area under farming as India.

Land under cultivation: At 169.3 million hectares (mh) in 2019, its land used for crop cultivation was higher than that of the US (160.4 mh), China (135.7 mh), Russia (123.4 mh) or Brazil (63.5 mh).

Ample water: With its perennial Himalayan rivers and average annual rainfall of nearly 1,200 mm – against Russia’s 475 mm, China’s 650 mm and the US’s 750 mm – India has no dearth of land, water and sunshine to sustain vibrant agriculture.

But there’s one resource in which the country is short and heavily import-dependent — mineral fertilisers.

India’s important dependence

In 2021-22, India imported 10.16 million tonnes (mt) of urea, 5.86 mt of di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and 2.91 mt of muriate of potash (MOP).

Import value: In value terms, imports of all fertilisers touched an all-time high of $12.77 billion last fiscal.

In 2021-22, India also produced 25.07 mt of urea, 4.22 mt of DAP, 8.33 mt of complex fertilisers (containing nitrogen-N, phosphorus-P, potassium-K and sulphur-S in different ratios) and 5.33 mt of single super phosphate (SSP).

Import of raw material: The intermediates or raw materials for the manufacture of these fertilisers were substantially imported.

Total value of fertiliser imports: The total value of fertiliser imports by India, inclusive of inputs used in domestic production, was a whopping $24.3 billion in 2021-22.

Two costs involved in import

1] Foreign exchange outgo for import: The first is foreign exchange outgo:

Imports are mostly from the following countries:

Urea: Imported from China, Oman, UAE and Egypt

DAP: Imported from China, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.

MOP: Imported from Belarus, Canada, Russia, Israel and Jordan.

LNG: Imported from Qatar, US, UAE and Nigeria.

Ammonia: Morocco, Jordan, Senegal and Tunisia (phosphoric acid); Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Rock phosphate: Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and Togo.

2] Fiscal cost: The second cost is fiscal.

Fertilisers are not only imported but also sold at subsidised prices.

The difference is paid as a subsidy by the government.

That bill was Rs 1,53,658.11 crore or $20.6 billion in 2021-22 and projected at Rs 2,50,000 crore ($32 billion) this fiscal.

Unsustainably high costs: Both costs are unsustainably high to bear for a mineral resource-poor country.

Suggestions

1] Reduce consumption of high-analysis fertilisers

There is a need to cap or even reduce consumption of high-analysis fertilisers – particularly urea (46 per cent N content), DAP (18 per cent N and 46 per cent P) and MOP (60 per cent).

Incorporate urease and inhibition compounds in urea: This can be done by incorporating urease and nitrification inhibition compounds in urea.

These are basically chemicals that slow down the rate at which urea is hydrolysed and nitrified (which increases leaching).

 By reducing ammonia volatilisation and nitrate leaching, more nitrogen is made available to the crop, enabling farmers to harvest the same yields with a lesser number of urea bags.

Liquid nano-urea: Together with products such as liquid “nano urea” –it is possible to achieve a 20 per cent or more drop in urea consumption from the present 34-35 mt levels.

Liquid nano-urea with their ultra-small particle size is conducive to easier absorption by the plants than with bulk fertilisers, translating into higher nitrogen use efficiency.

2] Promote the sale of SSP and complex fertilisers

A second route is by promoting sales of SSP (containing 16 per cent P and 11 per cent S) and complex fertilisers such as “20:20:0:13” and “10:26:26”.

Restrict DAP use: DAP use should be restricted mainly to paddy and wheat; other crops don’t require fertilisers with 46 per cent P content.

India can also import more rock phosphate to make SSP directly or it can be converted into “weak” phosphoric acid

The latter, having only about 29 per cent P (compared to 52-54 per cent in normal “strong” merchant-grade phosphoric acid), is good enough for manufacturing “20:20:0:13”, “10:26:26” and other low-analysis complex fertilisers.

3] Incorporate MOP into complexes

As regards MOP, roughly three-fourths of the imported material is now applied directly and only the balance is sold after incorporating into complexes.

It should be the other way around.

India, to re-emphasise, needs to wean its farmers away from all high-analysis fertilisers.

4] Use of NPKS complexes and indigenous sources

The moment to use more NPKS complexes and SSP, is already happening.

It requires a concerted push, alongside popularising high nutrient use-efficient water-soluble fertilisers (potassium nitrate, potassium sulphate, calcium nitrate, etc).

Exploiting alternative indigenous sources needs to be considered (for example, potash derived from molasses-based distillery spent-wash and from seaweed extract).

5] Revise nutrient application recommendations

Farmers need to know what is a suitable substitute for DAP and which NPK complex or organic manure can bring down their urea application from 2.5 to 1.5 bags per acre.

It calls for agriculture departments and universities not just to revisit their existing crop-wise nutrient application recommendations, but disseminating this information to farmers on a campaign mode.

Conclusion

The costs associated with the use of fertilisers are unsustainably high to bear for a mineral resource-poor country such as India. We need to act on the measures to reduce our import dependence.