SAHIWAL: University of Agriculture Faisalabad has introduced e-technology to provide information to farmers regarding usage of fertilisers and other inputs.

The move will benefit around five million farmers of Punjab especially 63 per cent growers having less than five acre piece of land.

This newly introduced Information and Communication Technology (ICT) will allow farmers to develop annual crop production plan by using proper quantity of fertilisers and other inputs.

These views were expressed by Punjab Agriculture Minister Dr. Farrukh Javed while addressing a media briefing at a local hotel on Saturday.

Principal Investigator Dr. Muhammad Rashid while elaborating the new “Fertiliser Model” (FM) claimed that it would reduce growers’ per acre input cost on fertiliser and pesticides and also allow them to go for 3-4 crops instead of traditional two-crop sowing pattern. He said the university had developed fertiliser prediction model to predict how much quantity of nitrogen and phosphorous was actually required in any piece of land.

“These prediction models are available at the website which calculate amount of fertiliser required in per acre yield of wheat, sugarcane, rice and maize crops.

“There are three steps a farmer will have to follow. First, he should visit district water and soil testing laboratory, get micronutrients report of his land, visit the website www.fertilizeruaf.pk at computer or mobile phone, put report on an auto generated format and then get production plan for any crop.”

The models have been developed by UAF with financial assistance of USAID and International Center ​f​or ​A​griculture in Dry Areas​ (ICADA)​. This facility is available to 36 districts of Punjab. Dr Rashid said UAF introduced another initiative for six districts i.e. Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranwala, Jhang, Okara and Layyah.

“Farmers can visit www.kissandost.pk and invest according to their financial resources and can also see the weather forecast for next five days.”

He said the link would update farmers about the current market rates of all the agriculture commodities and crops.

He said farmers could call for guidance during office hours at toll free no. 0800-54726 about the problems while using the website.

Published in Dawn, December 6th, 2015