Helpline to farmers

IT is heartening to note that the government has installed an online site to ensure balanced use of fertiliser in farmlands. This is aimed at increasing productivity by some 20-30 percent. With the decline in farmland by more than 68,000 hectares per year, raising productivity is the key challenge.
We, therefore, welcome the government's step drawing on a  software developed through  extensive soil tests to identify specific fertiliser requirements in different regions. Kudos to Soil Resources Development  Institute (SRDI) and Katalyst  for jointly developing the software.
The major drawback in fertiliser use has been the farmers' overuse of the input thinking that it will increase yield. Actually this has proved counterproductive. But we have some issues with implementation. The farmer has to furnish location of his land, its size, crop category or type and the fertiliser he plans to use in a given form to be fed on to the system. Then he will receive recommended doses of fertiliser. In other words, he needs basic training of how to go about it. With his lack of functional literacy, he would need to be helped through the process by a designated computer-savvy extension worker.
However, farmers can visit union information service centres or Grameenphone's  community information hubs to receive required information. Baglalink and Grameenphone subscribers can also get the service at numbers 7676 and 27676 respectively. A new awareness building campaign will be key to success of the overall project.