NEW DELHI: Seeking to reduce input cost of
farmers by leveraging information gleaned from the soil health cards (SHCs) databank, the Centre has notified a list of customised
fertilisers for over 100 districts across six states - Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and
Uttarakhand - for a period of four years.
The
customised fertilisers will be released for those select districts based on the results of the soil quality, testing of which was done during the first cycle (2015-17) of preparing and distributing of SHCs.
The move will help farmers use only those mix of fertilisers which can actually be suitable for their farms in particular districts while cultivating rice, maize, sugarcane and potato. As a result, farmers will end up using fewer fertilisers to get higher productivity unlike the pre-SHCs phase when they had to shoot in the dark based on their conventional knowledge.
The notification, issued by the agriculture ministry under Fertiliser (Control) Order, 1985 late last month, shows that specified grades of customised fertilisers would be valid for four years. It also factored in the stage of crop growth while recommending a specific grade of fertiliser.
“As of now, 18 ‘customised fertiliser’ grades for four crops - based on soil health cards data - have been notified. Remaining states will also be covered in due course of time”, said an official, referring to the ministry’s notified order.
The listing of grades will now be used by fertiliser companies as signals for manufacturing and supplying the ‘customised fertilisers’ to farmers in those identified districts in six states.
‘Customised fertiliser’ is a concept around balanced plant nutrition, based on the quality of the soil. Its main objective is to promote site specific nutrient management so as to achieve the maximum fertiliser use efficiency of applied nutrient in a cost effective manner. It includes combination of nutrients based on soil testing & requirement of crop.
Excessive use of fertilisers over the years has changed the soil character in almost all agro-climatic zones of the country. The SHCs have now given the ministry exact details of soil nutrient status of over 11 crore farm holdings of the country.
“Grades of customised fertilisers are finalised on the basis of those details. The fresh grades of customised fertilisers would be released after four years, taking into account the condition of soil at that time”, said the official.
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