Experts urge Barind farmers to go for balanced fertiliser use

FE Team | Published: November 14, 2018 21:30:49

RAJSHAHI, Nov 14 (BSS): Experts and researchers here suggested that the farmers have to be engaged in sustainable practice of balanced fertiliser use in their farmland to protect soil health from further degradation.
They viewed that soil nutrients have gradually been declining due to multifarious reasons including indiscriminate use of fertiliser creating a negative impact on the soil productivity.
They came up with the observation while addressing a function of farmers' field day and crop-cutting titled "Fertiliser Management in Transplanted Aman Paddy Farming" at Bijoynagar Primary School under Godagari upazila.
Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute and Bangladesh Rice Research Institute organised the function in association with Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Bangladesh Agriculture Research Council and Nutrient Management for Diversified Cropping in Bangladesh (NUMAN) Project.
More than 50 farmers including 13 females joined the field day function and some of them shared their views on how they are being benefited after the best uses of the balanced fertilisation method.
The meeting was informed about projection plots of six bigha of transplanted aman for the first time in the region during the current season.
In average, the six farmers got 25 maunds of yield per bigha which is impressive to other fellow farmers, said Liakat Ali Khan, President of Agriculture Protection Service Providers Organisation.
Field Manager Rashed Khan Menon said the three and half years NUMAN project is being implemented at the area aims to increase the profitability and sustainability of intensive and emerging cropping systems in the country through improved nutrient management.
School teacher Rejaul Karim and Sub Assistant Agriculture Officers Shafiqul Islam, Habibur Rahman and Akbar Ali disseminated their expertise on the issue.
They told the meeting that disproportionate use of chemical fertilisers and harmful pesticides for cultivation of high yielding varieties of different crops and vegetables is mainly blamed for continued decline in soil nutrients.