: Experts on Wednesday said that country can save billions of rupees by ensuring balanced usage of fertilizer that will also overcome decreasing soil fertility.

It was discussed at a meeting of fertilizer model experts and soil fertility model held at University of Agriculture Faisalabad main library with UAF Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Iqbal Zafar in the Chair.

Dr Iqbal Zafar said that imbalance usage was not only causing fertilizer wastage and but also a reason behind low productivity. He said that UAF fertilizer model had gained immense popularity among the farming community. It is aimed at enabling farmers get the desired yield of major crops according to soil analysis.

He said that through the model, we have disseminated the information among 3.5 million farmers through short message( SMS) so far. He said that in last four months, 30,000 farmers have benefited from the model that resulting in increasing the productivity and reducing the cost of production, He said we cannot apply fertilizer of Faisalabad Model at Multan region as the soil texture, fertility, and analysis is entirely different from each other. We need to get analysis and then apply a balanced fertilizer on the crop. He said that the UAF fertilizer model can be accessed through internet website fertilizeruaf.pk and mobile application named fertilizer calculator.

Principal Investigator Fertilizer Model Dr Muhammad Rasheed said that if we only ensure the 50 percent rational usage of nitrogen and phosphorus, it can add to billions of the rupees to national economy. He said that they were using SMS services also to create awareness among farming community. He stressed upon need to provide cost effective technologies at the doorsteps of the farmers which increase productivity and profitability per unit of land.

ICARDA Country Manager Abdul Majeed said that fertilizers has gained increasing importance as high agricultural production per unit is need of the hour from shrinking land and water resources. He called for raising the awareness among the farming community about the balance usage of fertilizer that will help achieve food security.

Engineer Mushtaq Gill, Dr Ahsan Raza and other notables attended the meeting.