"Soil health and rising input cost are threatening the sustainability of agriculture in Uttar Pradesh." Analyse this statement.

Soil health

• Decades of rice–wheat in the west and cane in the belt have mined organic carbon and left micronutrient gaps that a urea bag does not fill.
• Soil Health Card data have shown nitrogen overuse and missing zinc, sulphur, and organic matter in many districts.
• Groundwater over-pull in western U.P. salts and hardens profiles, which is a soil-health wound as well as a water wound.
• Nilgai and residue burning add physical damage and carbon loss on the same plots.

Rising input cost

• Fertilizer, diesel, labour, and hybrid seed have risen faster than many farm-gate prices, so the surplus of a small holding shrinks even in a decent monsoon.
• Imbalanced NPK, driven by cheap urea relative to phosphate and potash, raises the bill and still starves the soil.
• Custom hiring and power tariffs add to the cash cost of irrigation when tube-wells deepen.

Sustainability threat

• A system that mines soil and buys more input each year is not sustainable, even if foodgrain tonnage still looks large.
• Small and marginal holdings, which dominate U.P., cannot wait out a bad price year, so input inflation becomes an exit pressure.
• Soil Health Cards, micro-nutrient drives, drip in horticulture, and less residue burning are the correct direction, but they are slower than the cost spike.