Sangrur, 09 June- Under the guidance of the Director of Extension Education, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, and the Director, ICAR-ATARI, Zone-1, Ludhiana, the Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sangrur of Punjab Agricultural University is organizing awareness camps and farmer interaction meetings in villages under the ‘Save Farm Abhiyan’.
Sharing information about this campaign, Dr. Mandeep Singh, Incharge of PAU-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Sangrur, said that as part of this campaign, the PAU-KVK Sangrur team has visited more than 14 villages and reached about 1,500 farmers. They provided information on the balanced use of fertilizers based on soil testing, green manuring, biofertilizers, and the benefits of retaining crop residue in the field to improve soil health.
During camps held in the villages of Tungan and Bigarwal under the same campaign, Dr. Rukinderpreet Singh, Assistant Professor (Crop Science), advised farmers to apply nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, and micronutrients in crops only as per the soil test report.
He explained that if the recommended dose of DAP fertilizer had already been applied to the preceding wheat crop, there is no need to apply phosphorus fertilizer to paddy or basmati during the kharif season. He also shared how to identify zinc and iron deficiencies in paddy nursery and ways to correct them. He gave detailed information on proper weed management in paddy.
Dr. Sunil Kumar, Assistant Professor (Farm Machinery), encouraged farmers to incorporate crop residue into the field to improve soil health. He also informed farmers about the method of preparing mat-type nursery and transplanting techniques for mechanical transplanting of paddy.
Dr. Gurbir Kaur, Assistant Professor (Plant Protection), provided information on seed treatment for paddy and basmati, and on the prevention of dwarfing virurs disease in paddy nursery and crop. She also emphasized seed treatment as well as root treatment of nursery seedlings to prevent foot rot disease in basmati.
Dr. Ravinder Kaur, Associate Professor (Horticulture), gave information on balanced fertilizer management in horticultural crops and on setting up a home vegetable kitchen garden. At the end of the camp, questions asked by farmers related to paddy cultivation and fertilizer use were answered.