TURA: The annual World Soil day was celebrated by KVK Indian Council of Agriculture Research in collaboration with the state agriculture department at the DLRSL research centre in Sangsanggre, Tura on Tuesday with experts stressing on the need to protect the soil from pollutants such as pesticides.
As many as 136 farmers from different villages in Garo Hills took part in the programme which was inaugurated by project director of DRDA D D Shira.
Shira in his speech encouraged farmers to adopt the habit of using the soil with utmost care for our future generations. He also cautioned farmers against use of excessive fertilisers stating that polluted soil will have a negative impact on our health.
He encouraged farmers to share their knowledge to their neighbours and friends and spread the importance of preserving soil nutrients adding that co-operation and hard work will save our soil for our future generations.
The district horticulture officer of South West Garo Hills, N.Ch. Sangma, stressed upon using the chemical fertilisers and pesticides in recommended dose to the soil because using it excessively will kill the useful micro-organisms and soil will get degraded. She further suggested them to cultivate cover crops so that the soil will not get eroded.
In a similar way, M.D. Shira, district agriculture officer of West Garo Hills, stressed on the importance of soil and encouraged the farmers to conserve the soil fertility by using organic manures and bio pesticides.
Senior agriculture scientist and head in-charge on KVK ICAR Tura, A.S. Singh deliberated at length on the importance of Soil Health Card which farmers ought to follow when it came to the use of fertilisers to prevent destruction of the important micro-nutrients in the soil from overuse of chemical fertilizers.
He also encouraged the farmers to adopt crop sequencing and integrated farming system and brought into focus the importance of pulses which makes the soil fertile by fixing the atmospheric Nitrogen.
As part of the programme a total number of 120 Soil Health Cards were distributed to the farmers and a soil card film was also screened for the benefit of the farmers.