Celebration of World Soil Day by Agricultural College, Warangal at adopted village, Damera on 04-12-2021

Agricultural College, Warangal has organized World Soil Day in coordination with State Bank of India with a theme of “Halt Soil Salinization and Boost Soil Productivity” at adopted village Damera on 04-12-2021. The programme started with inviting guests on to the dias by Dr. P. Madhavi, Assistant Professor (SSAC) and spoken about the reasons for soil salinization and its effects on crops. Dr. M. Balram, Associate Dean addressed the gathering on importance of balanced use of fertilizers for enhanced crop productivity and emphasized the role of farmers in preserving soil health and soil biodiversity by applying organic manures like vermicompost, green manure crops and crop rotation with legumes. He also suggested Agriculture officer, Damera to ensure availability of green manure seeds in the village as a drive before vanakalam sowings. Sri. P. Raghava Rao, Assistant General Manager, State Bank Institute of Rural Banking, Hyderabad attended as a chief guest and enlightened farmers about world soil day and spoke about the importance of soil health and also emphasized on crop loans. Sri. M.V. Ramana Murthy, Chief Manager, SBI, Warangal attended as Guest of Honour and advised farmers to follow farming practices that maintains soil health for future generations. Dr. A. Venkat Reddy, Professor and Head (Entomology) spoke about ill effects of indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and insisted to grow green manure crops which in turn help in enrichment of soil fertility. Dr. J. Kamalakar, Assistant Professor (SSAC) has explained about the importance of soil analysis and integrated use of manures and fertilizers and suggested farmers to apply straight fertilizers instead of complex fertilizers. Smt. K. Swetha, Agricultural officer spoke about soil health management. Quiz competition was conducted to farmers and awarded with a cheque of Rs. 2000/- to first winner (Sri. K. Surender) and Rs. 1000/- to second winner (Sri. D. Yogeswar Rao) sponsored by State Bank of India. Smt. L. Suhasini, Assistant Professor (Hort) concluded the programme with vote of thanks. The program is attended by Sri. Shankar, MPP, Sri. Krupakar Reddy, MPTC, Village adoption committee members Dr. G. Swathi, Dr. Ch. Anusha and Smt. Ch. Yashaswini, ELP students and 30 farmers had participated in the programme. On the occasion of Soil Health Day, college level competitions were conducted to students in different categories like essay writing, elocution, painting and video documentary preparation. The prizes and certificates were awarded to the winners of different competitions by Shri. P. Raghava Rao, AGM, SBI, Hyderabad, Shri. M.V. Ramana Murthy, Chief Manager, SBI, Warangal along with Dr. M. Balram, Associate Dean.