Shortage of fertiliser hits farmers (postash, India)

[jpak]

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20080409020058&Page=Q&Title=ORISSA&Topic=0

Acute shortage of potash fertiliser in the district has hit the farmers hard with the rabi paddy crop turning yellow in most of the tribal pockets.

Taking advantage of the situation, black marketeers in Jeypore are selling the fertiliser at an exhibirant price to desperate farmers under the very nose of Agriculture Department officials.

According to reports, the farmers of Koraput district cultivated about 20,000 hectares of land for kharif paddy and the paddy transplanting got over last month.

As per the farmers’ requirement, about 1000 tonnes of potash should have been supplied to the district during March for rabi cultivation but there was acute shortage of potash during the month and only 300 tonnes was supplied that created shortage of potash fertiliser in the markets.

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[izquierdista]

1. Artificial shortage

This sounds like a shortage of chemically manufactured fertilizer, not a shortage of potash. I'm sure the poor of India, still cooking over wood fires have plenty of ashes to use for fertilizer. Is there no one collecting the ashes and leaching the potash out of it?

Time to THINK about biofuels and recycling. That's what you do after you have burned the biomass for energy; take the ashes, leach out the potash or apply them directly to the fields and complete the cycle.