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Soil health cards distributed

KASARAGOD: The concept of development needs to be reoriented to provide prime place to agriculture, Minister for Agriculture Mullakkara Ratnakaran has said. He was inaugurating the distribution of soil health cards, prepared by the State Soil Survey Department, at a function at Madikkai panchayat in the district on Monday.

As recently as two decades ago, agriculture formed the basis of all development concepts. But globalization removed agriculture from the picture, Mr. Ratnakaran said.

The Minister warned that the present changes would subvert development in the long run. He said the government had asked the Education Department to include agriculture in school syllabus, so that students would develop interest in it.

He added that the Soil Survey Department would be given enough funds for its activities.

Head of Soil Survey Department P.N. Premachandran said the health card provided information on land characteristics including elevation, slope, depth of groundwater and present land use and physical and chemical characteristics of soil.

The card will be introduced in select panchayats in all districts in the State in the first phase and will be extended to all panchayats. Hosdurg MLA Pallippram Balan presided over the function. P. Karunakaran, MP, spoke.

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