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Soil test based fertilizer recommendation, research and its adoption by farmers through soil testing laboratories is the need of the hour for triggering a soil health revolution as a major plank for realising the targets of food production and ensuring food security for all, former Director, National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Indian Council of Agriculture Research, Nagpur, Dr. M. Velayutham said on Tuesday.

Delivering the sixth Dr. B. Ramamoorthy Memorial lecture at Tamil Nadu Agriculture University, Dr Velayutham said that India has initiated the National Soil Health Card Scheme in 2015 which was more relevant than before, to increase the productivity of the farm lands. “Soil fertility maintenance and upgradation is ranked as the first strategy for Ever Green Revolution,” he said adding that United Nations rightly designated 2015 as the International Year of Soils.

The International Society of Soil Science, Vienna, has pronounced the years from 2015 to 2024 as the Decade of Soils and has exhorted nations to promote sustainable soil management practices so that we can hand over the soil and land to the future generation without its production potential undiminished, he said.

The lecture was part of the World Soil Day celebration organised at Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry of the university.

In his presidential address, the University Vice-Chancellor Dr. K. Ramasamy emphasised the need for farmer-centric agriculture at this juncture with modern media application.

Ramamoorthy was the pioneer in promoting soil test based fertilizer use research in the country through the concept of Targeted Yield approach and the Law of optimum underlying this concept.

A book in Tamil entitled Soil Test and Yield Target based Fertilizer Prescriptions for Crops – An overview of outreach activities in Tribal Villages of Tamil Nadu was released and distributed to the participants.

The book highlights the role of plant nutrients and their deficiency symptoms, outreach activities of All India Co-ordinated Research project on Soil Test Crop Response under Tribal Sub plan in Coimbatore, Tiruppur, Erode, Salem and Dindigul districts of Tamil Nadu and the ready reckoner of fertilizer doses for various soils and crops of the State.