A two day training programme for the concerned staff of Jammu Division on the newly launched Centrally Sponsored “Soil Health Card Scheme” under National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) was inaugurated by Director Agriculture, Jammu, Dr. S. S. Jamwal at Krishi Bhawan, Directorate of Agriculture, Jammu, today.Director Agriculture Jammu asked the participating trainees to get fully conversant with the soil testing protocol and methodology and develop skills for handling of chemicals and equipments like Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), Flame Photometers etc and sample registration on NIC Portal for ensuring success of the Mission. He said that Department of Agriculture has targeted to provide Soil Health Cards to each farmer within three years to enable them for balanced application of fertilizers and restoration of “Soil Health”.
He stressed that acquiring complete knowledge and skills is our prime responsibility for sustainable development of Agriculture and achievement of results as per targets. Director Agriculture, Jammu also impressed upon the trainees and the staff to expedite the process of sample collection and their analysis as per guidelines of a grid of 2.5 ha in irrigated areas and 10 ha from un-irrigated areas with GPS coordinates.A. K. Malhotra, Director, Command Area Development who is also looking after the Extension Wing of the Department spoke about the soil testing as an important tool to stop degradation of the soils which is an important natural resource. He explained that the recommendations generated on the basis of soil testing will guide the farmers to apply not only the major nutrients but also the minor nutrients.
G. D. Gupta, Agriculture Chemist gave a detailed Power-point Presentation on various components of the Soil Health Card Scheme and importance of Soil Testing in maintenance of soil fertility while, Vinod Ganjoo, District Agriculture Officer (Extension), Jammu gave lecture on collection of soil samples, submission and online sample registration on NIC Portal.
A. K. Nargotra, Assistant Bio-Chemist, R. K. Bhagat, Assistant Agriculture Chemist, S. Malvinder Singh, Nasir A. Zargar, Ashwani Kotwal, Om Singh, Research Assistants and Parveen Singh, JAEO are the resource persons for this Divisional Level training programme.