World Soil Day Celebrations at Agricultural College, Jagtial

Agricultural College, Jagtial, PJTSAU with the financial assistance of State Bank of India has organized “World Soil Day” in the adopted village Gullapeta. Sri T. Phani Srinivas, Regional Manager, SBI, Godavarikhani was the Chief Guest and Sri M. Kashiram, Chief Manager, Agricultural Development Branch, SBI, Jagtial was the Guest of Honour for the programme. Sri T. Phani Srinivas, Regional Manager, SBI has explained about the importance of crop loans and availability of other loans for the Agricultural and Allied Sectors for improving the livelihood of the farmers. He also mentioned about the programmes and the opportunity provided by the SBI to the small and marginal farmers as well as rural women. Sri M. Kashiram, Chief Manager, Agricultural Development Branch, SBI has given awareness on different opportunities provided by the SBI for the farmers and youth. Dr. S. Narender Reddy, Associate Dean addressed the gathering and explained about the soil health management techniques for the benefit of farming community and suggested the farmers to stop burning of paddy stubbles which has direct affect on soil and environment. Sri. J. Tirupathi, Sarpanch, Gullapeta has expressed his thanks on behalf of the village for conducting the programmes for the benefit of the farmers and development of village. The programme was followed with the lectures during the technical sessions; Dr. K. Chandrashaker, Assistant Professor has given on impact of organic Manures on Soil Health; Dr. R. Sai Kumar, Assistant Professor on Importance of Soil Testing; Dr. N. Mahesh Reddy, Assistant Professor on Crop Diversification and Mr. A. Umarajashekhar, Assistant Professor on Importance of Bio fertilizers. A quiz competition was conducted for the farmers and cash prizes of Rs. 2000/- and Rs. 1000/- were given to the winner and runner up respectively. Further, the farmers were distributed with the soil health cards and given the recommendations as per the status mentioned in the soil health card. The faculty form the college Dr. G. Seshu, Dr. O. Sampath, Dr. G. Satyanarayana Reddy, Dr. T. Sravan Kumar, Sri G. Tirupathi, Vice Sarpanch and 72 farmers form the Gullapeta village had participated in the porgramme. The faculty, B.Sc. (Hons) Agriculture students and M.Sc. (Ag) students of the college have participated in the online Guest Lecture on “Soil Health key to achieving SDG's – Innovative and Policy support” by Dr. A. Subba Rao, Ex-Director, IISS, Bhupal on the eve of World Soil Day celebrations organized by College of Agriculture, Rajendranagar, PJTSAU at 2:30PM.