Nayagarh: The soil-testing programme in Nayagarh district appears to have lost its way with decreasing numbers of farmers getting their soil tested at designated centres.
According to official data, the administration had set a target to test 13,104 soil samples in year 2019-20. However, only 3,495 samples have so far been tested.
The district has two agricultural offices. One is at Nayagarh and the other one is at Dasapalla. Nayagarh agricultural district had been given a target of testing soils of 9,264 farmers across Nayagarh, Bhapur, Odagaon, Ranpur and Khandapara blocks in the year 2019-20. But, samples from only 2,362 farmers’ lands have so far been collected for testing.
Similarly, the target for Dasapalla agriculture district had been 3,840. But, soil samples from the lands of 1,133 farmers have been collected as yet.
According to information available, no samples have been collected from targeted 1,882 and 502 farmers’ lands in Nayagarh and Gania blocks respectively.
Similarly, 300 samples out of targeted 728 farmers’ lands in Bhapur block, 502 samples out of targeted 2,950 farmers’ lands in Odagaon, 1,009 samples out of 2,018 farmers’ lands in Ranpur block, 551 samples out of 1,686 farmers’ lands in Khandapara block, 693 samples out of 2,012 farmers’ lands in Dasapalla block and 440 samples out of targeted 1326 farmers ’ lands in Nuagaon block have so far been collected.
Besides, the names of only 502 farmers out of 3,495 ones from whom the samples have been collected are found to have been registered with the soil testing centre. This apart, while the district has a total of 1,44,083 farmers, only 32,000 farmers have received soil cards.
These figures are enough to show up the inefficiency of the officials and the staff at the testing centres, local farmers said and urged the administration to intervene so that they could avail the benefit of soil-testing programme.
Despite repeated attempts to contact deputy director of agriculture Laxmi Naarayan Das for his comment over the issue, he could not be contacted as his mobile phone remained switched off.
PNN
