Telangana State Agro Industries Development Corporation (TS-Agros) has launched “Telangana Siri” city compost – organic fertilizer as part of the State Government efforts to encourage the use of organic manure and discourage the increasing use of chemical fertilizer.
The Telangana Siri brand of organic fertilizer was released by Minister for Agriculture S. Niranjan Reddy. Speaking after the launch of the compost fertilizer, the Minister said they would be available in all the 600 TS-Agros sales counters across the State, and asked the agriculture and horticulture departments to educate the farming community on the use of compost as part of reducing the use of chemical fertilizer.
He said that farmers were made to use chemical fertilizer by neglecting organic fertilizer in the name of getting higher yields and production. Farmers in the State had used 8.5 lakh tonnes of urea during the last Vanakalam crop season but this year even 10.5 lakh tonnes allotments appear to be insufficient, the Minister said adding that the government is focusing on creating awareness against use of chemical fertilizer explaining how they would impact soil quality as also the quality of the produce. The agricultural produce using chemical fertilizer had no export value since many countries had banned imports of agricultural and horticultural produce with chemical residue.
As the first step towards encouraging farmers to use organic manure, the government helped farmers cultivate green manure crops in about 12 lakh acres this season. The government is also planning to get the soil tests done twice every year and also issue soil health cards to all farmers.
He said that the TS-Agros is making compost with the garbage collected and processed in rural and urban areas and the municipal waste-based energy plants in the urban areas are providing both energy and manure.
Secretary (Agriculture) B. Janardhan Reddy and Managing Director of TS-Agros K. Ramulu participated in the event.
