If the agriculture officers are to be believed, all is not well with farming activity. In the last one decade, the level of microbes in the soil has came down from 80 to 40 per cent. It may further go down if proper steps are not put in place by the farming community.
Farmers not following soil conservation, imbalanced use of fertilizer and not using organic manure at required intervals are stated to be main reason for the prevailing conditions. Excess use of fertilizer worsening the situation further. Farmers following the same crop pattern for years together without rotation, not tilling organic manure and not adhering to the suggestions by agriculture officers are also resulting in adverse conditions.
For instance, while three bags of urea, one bag of DAP, half bag of potash and 10 kilograms of zinc sulphate is the recommended dose for one acre of maize cultivation, farmers at Siddipet, Gajwel and Dubbak areas are using almost the double quantity of urea while reducing DAP, which is crucial for strengthening of roots. Instead, they are focusing on green look of field, which attracts more pests, thus incurring more losses. The officials at soil testing centre have identified about 562 tanks, whose silt can be used for farms. They have also recommended not using silt of two tanks located at Patancheru, indicating the seriousness of pollution that is adversely affecting the tanks.
However, the officials feel that the removed silt from the tanks that is to be used in the farms would improve conditions for better. “The silt removed from the tanks will have all required nutrients that rejuvenate yielding capacity of the soil and works as catalyst for application of fertilizer,” M. Karunakar Reddy, Assistant Director, Soil Testing Lab, told The Hindu .
