Guiding role to be played by the Indian agricultural extension agencies to bridge the gaps in fertilizer application in India

Chemical fertilizers play a significant role in the development of agriculture sector and successful management of food security concerns in the country. Since the land resource is finite and there are increasing food requirements, the only way forward is to sustain increase in agricultural productivity at the same maintaining and improving the quality of soil. However the management of soil resources is facing several challenges in the forms of gaps in chemical fertilizer applications viz. wide variations in use of chemical fertilizers over the regions, a heavy skewness in favour of Nitrogenous fertilizer use and imbalanced and improper use of fertilizers. This type of challenges can be faced with proper Fertilizer Pricing Policy, Availability of credit facility, development of Knowledge-base of the Farmers, robust Fertilizer Policy, modern irrigation practices coupled with modern product lines of Indian fertilizer Industry. Indian Extension System with broader infrastructure, up-dating and re-orienting the extension workers with a multi-agency mode of work can play a crucial role in changing the irrigation and fertilizer application practices as being applied by the Indian farmers.