‘Soil testing as vital for crops as diagnostic tests are for humans’
An event in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district was jointly organised by Krishi Tantra, a Hyderabad-based social impact start-up, and Gaon Connection — India’s biggest rural media platform, to spread awareness about the issue of soil conservation and its testing.
As part of the Dewas event, around 100 farmers participated in a cycle-rally and drove the bicycles for a stretch, along with the other volunteers participating in the campaign.
In an event aimed at raising awareness about soil conservation and its testing among farmers, the district soil conservation officer of Dewas, Abbas Ali, addressed a gathering of cultivators in Madhya Pradesh and informed them about measures to conserve the natural resource.
Addressing a gathering of as many as 100 farmers in Badi Churlayi village, Ali said: “The importance of testing a soil sample before using fertilisers is as important as the purpose of diagnostic tests before administering medicines in human beings.”
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The event was jointly organised by Krishi Tantra, a Hyderabad-based social impact start-up, and Gaon Connection — India’s biggest rural media platform, as part of a larger nation-wide campaign to spread awareness about the issue of soil conservation.
Sandeep Kondaji, CEO of Krishi Tantra, has developed a device that can test 12 nutrients in a soil sample in 50 minutes. Previously available techniques detected only three nutrients and it took days for the results to arrive.
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As part of the Dewas event, around 100 farmers participated in a cycle-rally and drove the bicycles for a stretch, along with the other volunteers participating in the campaign.
The cycle rally was part of the country-wide cycle rally campaign being jointly organised by Krishi Tantra and Gaon Connection. It was inaugurated from the premises of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology in Jammu on March 3 and will culminate in Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu.
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The cycle rally will cover a distance of almost 3,500 kms and pass through 11 states in its journey that is expected to be 40-day long.
While addressing the gathering of farmers and students during the inauguration event of the campaign in Jammu, the Krishi Tantra CEO had said: “We should conserve soil as a heritage that we have received from our ancestors. But we have polluted the soil, water and air to a terrible extent. If soil could speak, it would protest against the injustice and exploitation that is being meted out to it. The future generations will have to suffer the consequences of what is being done in the present day.”