MULTAN:Agricultural experts believe the soil in Punjab was facing acute deficiency of organic material and micronutrients and suggested the application of green fertilizers to keep soil health in good shape and get higher production.
Agriculture spokesman said in a statement that Pakistan has a total area of 79.61 million hectares with Punjab landscape measuring 20.63 million hectares out of which 14.41 million hectares is irrigated and 6.22 million hectares fed by rains.
The fertility of soil in Punjab was decreasing, mostly due to deficiency of Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potash, Zinc and Boron, and what makes things more troubling is the scant presence of organic material that is less than one per cent, the spokesman said,
To overcome this deficiency, farmers used to apply animal waste fertilizers, poultry waste, press mud and compost but the low production results suggested these measures to be insufficient to meet the soil needs. This deficiency also compromises the efficacy of other inputs.
The spokesman suggested that farmers should apply green fertilizers adding that it gives good results, particularly on wheat and rice crops. Green fertilizers help soil absorb and retain water/moisture for a longer duration, improve soil fertility and increase organic material. He said that the brown beans (Rawan pulse) crop can yield eleven (11) tons of green fertilizers in just two months. He added that other pulses crops like Green Gram (Moong), Black Gram (Mash), Turkish Gram (Moth Dal), Soybean, Pea, Gram (Chana), and fodder crops like Clover (Berseem), Jantar, Lucerne, Indian Sweet Clover (Seenji), and Cluster Beans (Guwara) can also serve as green fertilizers. Explaining he said that these crops should be grown and then ploughed and mixed in soil for its enrichment.
He advised farmers not to leave land empty after wheat harvest and sow crops that can serve as green fertilizers.