Soil testing labs in every districts of Manipur

Last Updated on February 17, 2023 by SPN Editor

On the occasion of World Soil Day, Agriculture Minister Th Biswajit have announced the establishing of soil testing labs in every districts of Manipur.

Gracing the function, Minister Th Biswajit said that soil testing is an important part of farming, therefore the need to establish soil testing labs in every districts of Manipur is necessary. For this, state has started the process of setting up the labs in different districts of Manipur.

Th Biswajit tweeted, “Took part in the observance of #WorldSoilDay2022 today, organized under the campaign ‘Where the food begins’ along with the Commissioner of Agriculture, Director & other officials of dept in presence of farmers of the area at Farmers Traning Hall, Sanjenthong.”

He further said that farmers are facing the acute shortage of rich soil and are facing problems from the degraded soils during farming. The awareness program of soil management must be increased. Looking after the Kharif and Rabi crops, farmings must be alerted that different types of soil nutrients are required for different crops. Carefully the soil must be tested to confirm is the necessary nutrients are present in the soil.

Minister added, “We emphasized on focusing attention on the importance of healthy soil & advocating for sustainable resources for soil management. Like us, soils need a balanced and varied supply of nutrients in appropriate amounts to be healthy, which needs to be taken care of.”

Biswajit also said that the increased risk of Diabetes and Cancer are mainly depends on the food we eat. Some greedy farmers have been using harmful chemicals and pesticides to get more money from their farms. Such practices destroyed the farm soil as well as human lives.

The soil testing labs in every districts of Manipur will check the farms. Such testing will find out those nutrients which are absent in the soil. Our farmers can apply the lacking nutrients to enrich the soil for the healthy cultivation and growth of the crops, resulting in bumper harvest.

The Minister also suggest the use of Nano fertilisers in the farm which will protect the degraded soil from the excessive use of fertilisers. There is a scope for testing the benefits of using Nano fertilisers in the state and encourage farmers to replace Urea with Nano fertilisers in Manipur.

To increase the income of the farmers, the State government is in the process of applying various schemes of the Department in a systematic ways. The DONER Ministry has confirmed the State to submit the Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the farm mechanisation amounting to Rs 3000 crores. This would help the application of modern and latest technologies in Agriculture in the State.

Later, Biswajit requested the farmers to adopt Natural farming in Manipur. He promised to help the farmers who are shifting to natural farmings, reiterating that Agri Department and farmers must have cordial relationship as a family members.

Some selected farmers from different districts of Manipur were given soil health card during the function. The event was organised by the Department of Agriculture at the Farmers Training Hall of the Directorate at Sanjenthong on Monday. The theme of the World Soil Day was “Soil: Here Food Begins” in which Minister Biswajit was the Chief Guest, Agri Commissioner RK Dinesh as President, Agri Director N Gojendro and Additional Director Todingang Panmei as Guest of Honor of the event.