BSS, Rajshahi :
Agriculturalists opined that acidic soil management could increase crop yield by 25 percent on an average in the high Barind area. They also put stress on motivating farmers for adopting the acidic soil management process to boost their crop production.
The observation came at the opening ceremony of a three-day training course on acidic soil management through utilization of updated upazila land and soil resource guide.
Regional office of the Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI) hosted the training at the seminar room of Regional Horticulture Research Centre (RHRC) in Chapainawabganj on Sunday afternoon.
The training is being held in association with the ‘Strengthening of Soil Resource and Research Facilities (SRSRF)’ Project. Additional Secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture Komolaranjan Das addressed the session as the chief guest with SRDI Director Muhammad Kamruzzaman in the chair.
RHRC Chief Scientific Officer Dr Mukhlesur Rahman and Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture Extension Nazrul Islam spoke as special guests. During his concept paper presentation, SRDI Principal Scientific Officer Dr Nurul Islam said soil management with liming and organic matter can be the best way of boosting crop yield by 25 percent on an average.
He said acid soils are a major agricultural constraint for crop production due to its detrimental effect to soil fertility and productivity.
Dr Nurul Islam said main objective of the SRSRF project is to achieve more broad based and sustainable outcomes in soil health, soil amendment, food security, environment management and economic opportunity in the region.
Quoting the field-level research findings, he said liming and organic fertilisation has been found effective towards boosting crop yield through protecting soil health in the high Barind area.
Organic matter creates a positive soil environment from which plants can intake nutrients from applied chemical fertilisers.
It increases uptake of applied chemical fertilisers by the plants which contributes to increasing crop productivity through reducing toxic flow of active chemical fertilisers to the environment.
