World soil day: Soil health cards distribution” programme at Ibrahimpur, an adopted village of ARS, Tornala on 04-12-2021

A “World soil day: Soil health cards distribution” programme was organized by Dr. N. Sainath, Scientist (SSAC) and Dr. A.V. Ramanjaneyulu, Sr. Scientist (Agro.) & Head, ARS, Tornala at Ibrahimpur, Narayanraopet mandal, Siddipet district on 04-12-2021. Mr. Nagarjuna, AEO, Mr. Devaiah, Sarpanch, Mr. K. Nagesh Reddy, President of Rythu Samanvaya Samithi (RSS) and 45 farmers from Ibrahimpur village have participated in the programme. Dr. N. Sainath, gave a brief note on theme of this year’s World Soil Day (5th December, 2021) i.e. “Halt Soil Salinization, Boost Soil Productivity”. He further explained about soil nutrient management, soil degradation, soil salinity reclamation and management practices for managing problematic soils. Later, he briefly discussed about soil fertility status of Ibrahimpur village and also explained importance of soil sampling and soil test based fertilizer recommendations in paddy, maize, sunflower, redgram and cotton crops. He also discussed ways and means of correcting major and micronutrient deficiencies through inorganic and organic sources of nutrition. He explained to the farmers how to read and interpret the soil test values as mentioned in soil health cards. Mr. T. Nagarjuna, AEO discussed about success story of green manuring preceding to paddy and saving of 400 bags of urea during kharif, 2021. Mr. Devaiah and Mr. K. Nagesh Reddy thanked the scientists for technology dissemination by the scientists of ARS, Tornala and Agricultural Department. Dr. A.V. Ramanjaneyulu, gave a brief note on agronomic management for crops, importance of crop rotation and crop diversification, green manure crops cultivation, importance of biofertilizers and manures (FYM, vermicompost and poultry manure) on the eve of world soil day. He further enlightened the farmers about ill effects of crop residue burning and suggested to use multi crop shredder/rotary mulcher/rotavator for insitu incorporation of crop residues to avoid air pollution and enrich soil fertility. At the end, soil health cards were distributed to 167 beneficiary farmers of Ibrahimpur village.