Excessive use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides has affected soil and water quality in the Jaffna peninsula, Sri Lanka. Students from the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Jaffna have been learning about green manures from farmers, and how they have been used to improve soils. Green manures were also used successfully to rehabilitate salinated soils affected by the tsunami. These and other organic practices are now being promoted with and by farmers.

Integrating cover crops and green manures helps farmers rehabilitate degraded soils in highland areas. In Ecuador, farmers experimented with this conservation practice. They found that it improved their farming system in many ways: increased productivity in their main crop, decreased weeding time, provided them with an extra crop (for food, fodder, marketing), besides rehabilitating their soils.

The Agriculture Department has directed its field staff to draw samples of vermin-compost and various types of bio-fertilisers to ensure that farmers were supplied products of the prescribed standard. Director of agriculture J.C. Rana said the fertiliser (control) order had been amended to include azotobacter, rhizobium, azospirillium and phosphate solublising bacteria under bio-fertilisers and town compost, vermi-compost and press mud under organic fertilisers.

Seeking to clear the air over his criticism of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Sunday said the Government and its policy-makers and not any individual were responsible for the crisis in the agriculture sector. "I am not blaming any person. I am blaming the Government. The Government and those who decide its policies lack foresight. It is because of their point of view that the country is facing such a crisis,' Bhattacharjee told a private channel.

A trailer loaded with about 300 spurious DAP fertiliser bags impounded by officials of the agriculture extension department of Mirpurkhas near Jhuddo town four days ago is still in the custody of Jhuddo police as the test result of the fertiliser samples sent to a laboratory has not been received.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) has proposed Rs 22.5 billion subsidy on fertilisers in the coming budget 2008-09 against Rs 17 billion allocated in the budget 2007-08, sources told Business Recorder here on Wednesday. DAP is the only fertiliser that is being subsidised by the government. As in the budget 2007-08, it was decided to provide the subsidy of Rs 17 billion while giving Rs 470 subsidy on each bag of 50 kg of DAP.

The establishment of a local certifying body in organic farming would provide low-cost audit and certification facilities to the existing market players in Pakistan. Shafaqat Ali Syed, Financial Analyst and Investment Advisor (FA & IA), Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF), told Business Recorder on Wednesday that ASF has approved a matching grant support for Bhombal & Company (Pvt) Ltd, Karachi, to acquire foreign accreditation in organic farming certification and GlobalGAP.

Significant increase in the growth of paddy plant parts was achieved by halving the urea used and pelleting the remaining with neem cake prior to application. Results on a non-averaged dataset showed significant increase in leaf length, number of leaves, number of panicles, number of tillers and greenness of leaves.

Affordable: Ms. Rajareega at her farm in SivaGanga district, Tamil Nadu seen manufacturing the botanical pesticides.

Benue Valley of North Central Nigeria is basically an agrarian zone with about 95% of her inhabitants engaged in agricultural businesses. This study assessed the performance of organic vegetable growers who utilized locally fabricated Biodigester along the river bank and inorganic vegetable growers who used chemical fertilizers on the high plain of Benue Valley.

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