Online fertiliser recommendation service likely by June

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The government is planning to introduce online fertiliser recommendation service for the farmers across the country by June 2010 to increase yield of crops at reduced production cost, reports BSS.
The Soil Resource Development Institute (SRDI) has already started database updating of the land linked to the soil fertility, the Agriculture Ministry sources said Sunday.
Under the service, the farmers will get crop-base information on balanced fertiliser application through the mobile phone community information centre (CIC) or dialling a specific number like 7676 of Banglalink helpline.
The government has already launched a pilot phase digital fertiliser recommendation system for the farmers of 30 upazilas. Officials of the SRDI and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) are motivating the farmers about the service through organising yard meetings.
Every day they are organising at least five yard meetings in each upazila and at least 50 farmers are participating in the meetings.
Senior scientific officer of SRDI Md Moqbul Hossain said that they had included the soil fertility data of 100 upazials under the update database.
He also said that farmers would get fertiliser recommendations by providing six- basic information like name of the crop, type of land, name of the union, upazila and district.