World Soil Day themed ‘Keep Soil Alive, Protect Soil Biodiversity’ was celebrated at KVK Kargil Campus, Khurbathang on December 5.
 
The day was organised by Krishi Vigyan Kendra Kargil-1 (KVK-I) in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Kargil. The day aimed to emphasize the importance of soil health management and advocate for sustainable management of soil hidden resources.
 
Haling the efforts of KVK Kargil and Agriculture Department Kargil for organizing the awareness session, EC Agriculture, Muhammad Ali Chandan urged upon farmers to strive hard to ensure better soil health by adopting efficient application of correct types and amounts of manure and fertilizers for the supply of nutrients to make their agricultural practices productive and profitable. He exhorted upon the farmers to test their soil regularly and use manure and fertilizers as per the recommendations of the experts to achieve better production.
 
The officers of KVK and line departments were asked to conduct awareness programmes for the farming community regarding soil health, scientific techniques, and the balanced use of fertilizers and organic manures at regular intervals. 
 
He also stressed on farmers to strive hard to make agriculture a viable source of livelihood and assured all-out support from the LAHDC Kargil to encourage farmers in this regard.
 
Principal Scientist and Head KVK-I Kargil, Dr. Ghulam Mehdi gave a brief introduction of World Soil Day and spoke about various measures for improving soil fertility through the efficient utilization of waste materials and promotion of bio-fertilizers. 
 
He thanked the Director, National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, ICAR, and his team for assuring isolation of various beneficial microbes from Kargil soil that has been submitted to them by KVK Kargil -1. 
 
ACD Kargil, Ghulam Mohammad stressed to adopt drip irrigation system in drought-prone areas. 
 
The officers of line departments and scientists of SKUAST highlighted the importance of soil health maintenance for profitable and sustainable agricultural yield. They further informed farmers about the importance of soil health and soil testing facilities as well as various measures like the use of organic manures in the highest proportions, proper aeration, ploughing, tillage, rotational cropping, and adoption of mulching in water-deficient areas.
 
The speakers highlighted the revival of the use of water reservoir tanks for filtration and desilting of water for efficient irrigation, well rotten and decomposed organic manure as well as using procurement of gypsum to reduce the alkalinity of soil as some measures to ensure better soil health for satisfactory crop production and growth.
 
Dr. Nasreen Fatima SMS, KVK Kargil expressed gratitude to all the participants and urged the EC Agriculture for strengthening of KVK laboratory so that different bio-pesticides and bio-fertilizers can be isolated as and when required from the local soil.