Use of Chemical Fertilizers in Rice Cultivation in Fertile Alluvial Region of North Bengal Plain: A Present Scenario of the Raiganj CD Block, Uttar Dinajpur, West Bengal, India

Use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture is now become a common trend to the farmers. Without testing the soil, farmers often applied a huge amount of fertilizers for the greed of more production. Rich fertile alluvial soil, gentle slope, humid tropical climate and abundant rainfall in the study area encourages the cultivation of rice as a major crop here. Now-a-days, rice cultivars of this area do not show any interest in the cultivation of the traditional rice varieties, rather they show interest in the cultivation of HYVs of rice by using a huge amount of chemical fertilizers. Without understanding the soil nutrient requirement, they applied more and more fertilizers to increase the yield of rice. Even they applied fertilizers to such traditional rice varieties which do not require any fertilizers. Intensive field survey in the rice fields and interview with the rice cultivars reveals the facts that use of these fertilizers, though increased the yield of rice in its initial stage, but at present the yield of rice as well as fertility of soil is lessening day by day. The aromatic quality of the famous indigenous Tulaipanji rice of this area is also decreases because of the use of chemical fertilizers. High value of pH is found when the testing is done on the water samples of the waterlogged rice fields and surrounding ponds. This study attempts to focus on the extent of the use of chemical fertilizers in rice cultivation in the rich alluvial fertile land of the study area and also highlight its ongoing impacts. Testing of the soil of the rice field in regular basis and cultivation of only selected high yielding and traditional rice varieties in organic way will be the better choice to reduce the adverse effect of the fertilizers.