Indore (Madhya Pradesh): The use of balanced fertilisers and integrated nutrition management and organic carbon is an important component of soil health that can result in more crop yield.
This was the opinion of experts during a session organised on Monday on the occasion of ‘World Soil Day’. The day is celebrated by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations to spread awareness about soil health and ensure a system of sustainable management of soil as a precious resource.
The city-based Indian Institute of Soybean Research organised a farmer-scientist interactive session on Monday. The topic of the session was "Soil Nutrition in Soybean: Then and Now." The session was held through the Institute's Zoom and YouTube channel. More than 500 farmers across the country participated in the session.
Dr BU Dupare, principal scientist of the institute coordinated the session. Retired scientists of the institute, Dr AN Sharma (Entomology), Dr SD Billore (Agronomy) and Dr OP Joshi (Soil Science) along with Dr Suresh Motwani were present. The director of the institute, Dr KH Singh advised to work in the direction of maintaining the health of the soil with good fertility for the benefit of future generations. Eminent soil scientist Dr OP Joshi discussed various aspects of improving the quality of the soil and said “90% of the food that we get is from the soil and according to the calculation, 60% more food production is needed till 2050, which is possible only by the nutritional management of the soil”. He advised that by using organic manure, the quality of the soil can be improved.
Dr Billore advised the use of balanced fertilizers and integrated nutrition management.
Institute's renowned retired entomologist, Dr A.N. Sharma said that the most dangerous pests for soybean crops like tobacco caterpillars and girdle beetle mainly thrive in the soil, which damages the crop from the inside. He stated that to get rid of this problem, treatment should be done by FIR method - first by Fungicide, then Insecticide and finally by Rhizobium/PSB culture. Savita Kolhe coordinated the farmer-scientist discussion session under which the experts answered the questions asked by the farmers. Dr R K Verma presented the vote of thanks to all the guest speakers and farmers present.
