BHUBANESWAR: The Agriculture Department has launched a massive soil testing campaign across the State to enable the farmers for better soil nutrient management before start of the kharif operation.With nearly 70 per cent of the cultivated area of the State being acidic and another 4 per cent having saline condition, the farmers need to go for proper nutrient management of the soil for higher productivity, said Agriculture and Food Production Director S. Gopalan.The field staff of the department have been instructed to collect at least five soil samples from each village for testing. The Agriculture Directorate has placed an order with Andhra University for supply of 1,250 soil testing mini kits. As the mini kits are yet to arrive, Gopalan said the soil samples would be stored at the block headquarters.Presently, the State has 11 soil testing laboratories. Another six such laboratories were set up at Angul, Bargarh, Keonjhar, Nuapada, Rayagada and Sonepur with financial assistance from the Ministry of Agriculture under the national project on management of soil health and fertility. However, the new laboratories could not be operationalised due to shortage of technical personnel. The department is contemplating to outsource these laboratories along with five mobile soil testing labs, he said.The Ministry has also sanctioned funds for modernisation of three micro-nutrient testing laboratories located at Bhubaneswar, Bhawanipatana and Sundaragh.Farmers are encouraged to go for soil testing of their land every year to know the nutrient position of the soil. This will help the department to advise the farmers for better nutrient management for higher productivity, he said.While the State has two fertiliser quality control laboratories, one in the city and the other at Sambalpur, a new laboratory was opened at Rayagada. Besides, five mobile testing laboratories were provided for Nabarangpur, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Puri and Gajapati.As soil health is directly proportional to productivity of foodgrains, the Government has given a major thrust to integrated nutrient management (INM) in the new agriculture policy. The State Government has decided to open a soil testing laboratory in each district.The Agriculture Department has introduced ‘soil health card’ and about 1.11 lakh farmers have already become card holders. The objective of the soil health card is to provide information to the farmers on the soil condition of their land and the necessary nutrient management required. The card is made available at a nominal price of Rs 5.
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