India has long celebrated the Green Revolution a miracle that helped feed over a billion people and turned the country into an agricultural powerhouse. But behind this story of self-reliance lies a far more toxic truth. We are now caught in a dangerous paradox: the same chemical-synthetic nitrogen, that once saved us from starvation is now slowly poisoning our water, polluting our air, and draining our national finances.

The numbers are alarming. India spent Rs 1.91 lakh crore in 2024–25 just on subsidizing urea, one of the most commonly used nitrogen fertilizers. That’s more than the combined budgets of education, health, and environment ministries. And what do we get in return? Only 20–30% of this nitrogen is actually absorbed by crops. The rest, nearly 80% leaks into our environment,

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