UAF kicks off SMS service for one million farmers

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad (UAF) on Thursday kicked off short message service (SMS)for one million farmers aimed at raising awareness about balanced usage offertilizer that will not only reduce cost of production, but also increase productivity.Inaugurating the service, UAF Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that the balanced fertiliser use could result in increasing productivity of major crops up to 50 percent. He said that the country was having 80 million mobile phone subscribers. He said that out of them 55 thousands are farmers. We are sending the message to at least 25,000 farmers in the each district of the province comprising 36 districts.He said the UAF had devised soil test based fertiliser prediction models to predict the required amount of N and P for desired yield of major crops, giving the suggestion to the farmers about the recommended fertiliser usage in their field.For this purpose, farmers can visit the website: www.fertilizeruaf.pk at computer or mobile phone.He praised the steps being taken on the part of the government for the uplift of agriculture sector by providing subsidy on fertiliser. These government initiatives enabled the farming community to reduce cost of production. Professor Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said, "We cannot apply fertiliser of Faisalabad Model at Multan region as the soil texture, fertility, and analyses were different, so it was the need of the hour to get the analysis and then apply a balanced fertiliser on the crop in a bid to fulfil dream of food security".He said that we are wasting the fertiliser due to lack of awareness. He said that excessive use of fertiliser was not only increasing the cost of production, but also responsible for the health hazards. Dr Muhammad Rashid, Principal Investigator of the model said farmers can use these Prediction Models to determine the actual amount of nitrogen and phosphorus for desired yield of wheat, cotton, sugarcane, rice and maize crops. For this purpose, farmers can visit the website: www.fertilizeruaf.pk at computer or mobile phone. He said that the USAID and ICARDA are providing financial and technical support for creating awareness among the farming community for fertiliser prediction models. He said an additional income of Rs 305 billion can be obtained by balanced use of nitrogen and phosphorous on 50% area of five major crops, ie wheat, sugarcane, cotton, rice and maize. He said that in Punjab, 95 percent soils are nitrogen deficient.Dr Ahsan Raza said that 60 thousand farmers have visited this website till now. Under this project, the training was imparted to 15 thousand farmers and the relevant literature was distributed amongst the participants. He said the agriculture sector was facing challenges of optimising fertiliser use-efficiency, diversifying cropping patterns, improving quality and reducing cost of production.News SourceNews Collated byPAKISSAN.comCourtesy www.brecorder.com