Ranchi: In its bid to boost crop productivity in the mineral- rich state of Jharkhand, the Government of India has sanctioned a Rs 1.21 crore project to set up eight more soil testing centres in areas where farm output is relatively low.

The project to set up soil testing centre is a part of the nationwide campaign—National Soil Health Mission—that has been formulated recently by the Union Ministry of Agriculture to maximise crop output to tide over scarcity of foodgrains including pulses and oilseeds.

The strategy has been chalked out keeping in view stagnancy in crop production over the last one decade despite increased inputs like seeds, fertilisers, micronutrients, irrigation and pesticides.

Premier institute of farm technology in the State, Birsa Agriculture University (BAU) has been tasked to establish new soil testing laboratories (SLTs) at Godda, Bokaro, Garhwa, Chatra, Lohardaga, Seraikella, Pakur and Palamu under the public private partnership mode.

These centres would be located in the premises of Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVKs).

Fifty per cent of the project cost in terms of building and infrastructure would have to be borne by the KVKs, while testing equipment like atomic absorption spectrophotometre, Ph metre, UV-visible spectrometre, flame photometre, and technical training on handling soil samples would be provided by the university, BAU Dean and eminent soil scientist, AK Sarkar said.

“All the laboratories will be asked to conduct as many as 10,000 soil samples in a year, and dish out suitable recommendations for increasing micronutrients for soils along with soil health cards to farmers in the respective districts. The laboratories also need to take follow up action to make sure that the recommendations really benefited the farmers,” Sarkar stressed.

In addition to the new ones, the existing eight SLTs at Ranchi, Chakradhapur, Dumka, Sahebganj, Hazaribag, Giridih, Gumla and Latehar, are working under the control of the Agriculture Department, will be strengthened under the guidance of qualified scientists of the BAU.

The project also envisages establishing a new quality control laboratory (QCL) at Dumka besides refurbishing the existing QCL at Ranchi to test the efficacy and quality of nutrients and pesticides and also to check the supply of fake fertilisers and seeds in the market.