An awareness programme on soil health testing was today organized by SKUAST-Jammu at village Mondal,, block Purmondal of Samba district under the guidance of Dr. J. P. Sharma, Director Research of SKUAST-Jammu. The programme was coordinated by Dr P. K. Rai along with a team of scientists of SKUAST-Jammu and officers from NABARD Jammu and Department of Agriculture, Govt. of J&K.
Welcoming the gathering, Dr. P. K. Rai, Sr. Scientist (Soil), ACHR & PI of the project highlighted the importance of soil health testing for sustainable agriculture and insisted farmers for soil testing to be made a regular feature to boost productivity and also made the farmers aware of importance of diversified cultivation practices of crops in climate change scenario. Dr. A. P. Rai, Asstt. Prof, Soil Science explained the farmers about the detail procedure of soil sampling and resources for testing samples and gave the practical demonstration.
Sh. Surinder Kumar, DDM, NABARD gave details of government schemes that could benefit the farmers and ensured full cooperation with university in implementing the beneficial schemes for farmers. Sh. Deedar Singh, AEO, encouraged farmers to take the benefits of schemes available with the Department of Agriculture.
During the interactive discussion on soil health card, participants displayed their keen interest in soil testing and further advance training. Pawan Singh, Gukam Nabi, and Gurdayal Singh from the Panchayat Halqa Katwatta had healthy interaction with the scientists.
