Agricultural restructuring : Govt to set up soil laboratories

MULTAN: Agriculture experts have said excessive application of fertilisers can hardly be profitable and advised farmers to get soil analysed from a laboratory for need-based application. An agriculture spokesman said in a statement on Wednesday that the government had set up soil and water analysis laboratories and farmers could avail facilities to know what the soil needs besides soil structure, colour, salinity, retrievable nitrogen, Potash, Zinc, Boron, quantity of organic material, soil PH value and requirement of gypsum. The soil analysis result helps farmers maintain fertility by ensuring application in accordance with soil needs. To get an acre of soil analysed from a laboratory, farmers need a kilogramme of soil sample collected from different parts of the field. This combined soil sample can explain fertility status. Before taking a sample, farmers should identify points from where they would collect samples and such points should be away from road, trees, heaps of fertilisers and houses.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 13^th, 2014.

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