Kolkata: The state Agriculture department mulls an alternate mechanism for soil testing after the Centre has stopped the project for the same since January.
A high level meeting was held in this connection at Nabanna on Wednesday in which top brass of the state Agriculture department were present.
Soil testing is a crucial aspect in terms of ensuring proper growth of crops as it helps in determining the kind of seed to be used in which type of soil. Experts suggest the quantity of fertilisers that to be used depending on the report of soil test.
The test of soil has become more crucial after the super cyclone Amphan as salinity level of agricultural land has reported to have gone up as acres of land went under water due to the natural calamity. In such a situation, the state government is leaving no stone unturned to carry on with the soil testing to help farmers of the state.
Asish Banerjee, the state Agriculture minister, said: "The Centre is actually depriving farmers by stopping such projects. Anyways we are planning for alternate mechanism to ensure the same."
More than 140 experts used to work in the project. They used to carry out soil testing across the state.
There are 13 soil testing laboratories spread in different parts of the state and they would and the alternate way of carrying out the same is highly dependable on the infrastructure of the laboratories that was developed in the past nine years. Bengal has come up as one of the leading states in alternate farming as well in the country and farmers income has increased manifold in the past few years with a series of schemes taken by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Now at no cost, the state government will let the agriculture sector get affected. So all moves have been made to help farmers reap the benefit of soil testing as usual.