To better the production of crop yield in Maharashtra, the state government has decided to implement a five-year scheme aimed at improving soil health and making it rich in micronutrients. The decision was taken in a Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday.
As per the research done by various agriculture universities of the state, due to lack of micronutrients in the soil, there has been significant decrease in production of crop yield in recent years.
A senior officer of the agriculture department, who also attended the Cabinet meeting, said that to ensure good production of crop yield it is necessary to improve soil health.
According to the decision, the state will provide fertilisers to farmers with 50 per cent subsidy in all the tehsils, where micronutrients like zinc and iron are found 60 per cent less in the soil. “We have a total of 281 such tehsils, out of which 175 tehsils are facing deficiency of zinc, while 106 tehsils are facing iron deficiency in the soil,” an official said.
“Each tehsil will be provided with micronutrient-enriched fertilisers for a maximum 200 hectares of land. For every hectare of land, 30 kg of fertiliser enriched with zinc sulphate and iron will be supplied to end the deficiencies,” the official added.
According to the research reports, there are about seven micronutrients essential to plant growth and health that are only needed in very small quantities. These are zinc, iron, manganese, boron, copper, chlorine and molybdenum.