With a large number of farmers are showing keen interest in getting the soil of their fields tested, the soil health cards are benefiting the farmers extensively in the district by minimizing their cultivation cost thereby immensely enhancing their profit.Deputy Commissioner Varinder Kumar Sharma said that agriculture department has so far collected 29711 soil samples from each block of the district including Jalandhar west (3780), Jalandhar East (3780), Nakodar (3780), Bhogpur (2904), Nurmahal (1870), Shahkot (2980), Lohian (2960), Rurka Kalan (1750), Phillaur (2990) and Adampur (2917) and has also issued 26114 soil health cards, through which they could assess the needs of their land and use the fertilizers judiciously.Mr. Sharma said that under this scheme, the experts are analyzing the various soil parameters including salt, acid content besides nitrogen, phosphorous, potash, zinc, iron, sulphur in the soil and reports are being sent to the concern farmers accordingly with recommendation to take particular measures to deal the shortage of nutrients in the soil. The reports are being uploaded the website of the department along with information about names of village, farmer and district, he told.
He revealed that the state has around 60 soil analyzing labs and three in Jalandhar. The district has 2.36710 lakh hectare areas under agriculture and one soil sample is being procured from the area of 12.5 acres, he told.Deputy Commissioner stated that earlier, the farmers were applying fertilizers injudiciously without any knowledge about the need of the soil and spending huge money. He informed that excessive use of fertilizers not only emptying the pockets of the farmers but also putting adversely impact on the soil health hence hitting the productively too.Mr. Sharma claimed that the department is consistently creating awareness among the farmers regarding soil health cards so that they can minimize their expenses on the fertilizers. He said that under Tandarust Punjab Mission of state government, the department is pushing the farmers to avoid excessive use of fertilizers which is harmful to the environment and adopting a natural way to enhance nutrients in the soil.