School soil health prog held

MAHADEVPUR, 29 Apr: Twenty-eight students of the Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya here in Namsai district, along with teaching and non-teaching staffers, and officials of Tezu (Lohit)-based 5 DAO participated in a ‘school soil health programme’, conducted by the agriculture & farmers welfare department here on Monday.

Organised in collaboration with the union school education and literacy department, the programme, launched by the Centre, aims at creating awareness among students about the importance of soil health for sustainable agricultural practices, the Namsai KVK informed in a release.

“The programme has been launched in 1,000 schools across the country, where eight schools have been earmarked in Arunachal Pradesh,” it said.

Members of the KVK imparted training in soil sample collection, testing, and generation of soil health cards at the school, in collaboration with the Lohit district agriculture office.

Namsai KVK plant protection scientist Dr Madhumita Sonowal Bora apprised the participants of the importance of soil analysis, methods of soil sample collection, analysis, interpretation, and generation of soil health cards.

“Such training programmes envisage generation of awareness among the farmers on using soil health cards for judicious use of fertilisers to reduce emission of greenhouse gases and check soil degradation by igniting minds of schoolchildren,” the release said.