Case Study
“Soil testing changed my thinking” Soil testing can reduce input costs and increase income
Md. Zahurul Islam is a farmer in a remote village- Dakhin Atkoria, Baluahat Union, Sonatola Upazila of Bogra district. With majority of his income from farming he was supporting his family of five as the sole earning member. In addition to farming he also earns some money from rice husking He owns two acres of land for agriculture. The continuous increase of input cost and similar decrease in land productivity made him reluctant to continue crop cultivation because the profits were so frustrating. That soil testing can be good and effective for cost minimization; can contribute for higher yield was completely unknown to him. His preliminary conception about soil testing was negative; he thought it was costly and would not give any extra benefits. In early 2007, Zahurul was introduced to the AISD project in a soil test awareness-building session which was organized by Message of Bangladesh (MOB). Attending the session was not enough to convince Zahurul of the benefits of soil testing but it got him interested and so he contacted one of the MOB soil collectors. In the meantime, AISD introduced a soil collector; Anisur with the farmers in this area who collected soil samples of farmers including Zahurul’s and sent the samples to KZZ trust for testing. KZZ trust is a privately owned, trained and professional soil testing laboratory and its activities were made known to potential farmers. To demonstrate better the benefits of soil testing, MOB and KZZ trust also set up trial demonstrations for the farmers. KZZ trust analyzed Zuhurul’s soil and provided a report with recommended fertilizer dozes for the specific rice cultivation. He set up a trial demo plot of about 35 decimals including a control plot. He decided to cultivate hybrid rice of Moina variety sold by the of Lalteer Seed Company Ltd. IDE-AISD supported him to establish his trial demonstration. Before planting the rice seedlings on the demo plot, Mr. Zahurul used the soil test recommendations in his farm. Md. Zahurul selected half of the land (17.5 dec) for using fertilizer according to soil test recommendation and rest half of the land cultivated without following the test results i.e. applying his old methods to the control plot. Zahurul got a total of 17.5 maunds (100 maunds per acre) paddy from the happiness treated plot versus 14.85 maunds (84.8 maunds per acre) from the control plot. The fertilizer cost in the treated plot was Tk. 549.00 but in control plot it was Tk. 931.00. It was concluded from findings that a farmer could save Tk. 2182.00/acre (Tk. 5391.00/ha) by using balance fertilizer doze just testing the soil which cost is around Tk. 60.00 only. He found that comparative results from his demo plots profitable and yield increased by 15% in comparison to the control plot. Production cost has been reduced by 16%, fertilizer cost has been reduced by 41%. The soil test results help him in determining the non-important fertilizers that he used to apply in his field. All this information ultimately helped him increase income from the same piece of land that he initially found unproductive. The trial results changed Zahurul’s thinking, appreciating the importance of soil testing in farming to increase farm profitability. Influenced by the results, he said that “Everybody should test soil fertility and should follow recommended fertilizer dozes for the specific crop to plant”. Md. Zahurul also said that he would continue his farming activities and will test soil before any crop cultivation. The trial plot by Zahurul has created very good impression among the farmers of that village and they have also expressed interest to test soil before cultivation. He is disseminating this message to the other farmers. With a smiling face he expressed that “Soil testing changed my thinking.”
Program: Agriculture Input Service Delivery (AISD) Country: Bangladesh, International Development Enterprises (IDE) Contract: Shyam Sundar Saha, Program Director. shyam@ide-bangladesh.org
Md. Zahurul’s smiling face indicate his