A SENIOR agricultural official has advised farmers to test their soil annually at government laboratories to ensure they are using appropriate amounts of fertiliser.

The tests monitored soil nutrition and enabled farmers to “choose the right amount of the right fertiliser for their crops,” said U Kyaw Yee, the general manager of the Land Use Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.
Identifying the appropriate amount of fertiliser to use may help farmers to cut costs, U Kyaw Yee said.

It also eliminated possible harm by fertilisers, he said.

The Land Use Division has soil test laboratories at its offices throughout the country, including Mandalay, Sagaing, Magwe, Pathein, Sittwe, Taunggyi, Loikaw, Mawlamyine, Thanintharyi, Hakha, Myitkyina and Hpa-an.

U Kyaw Yee said the tests also helped to determine whether excessive or long-term use of fertilisers containing high amounts of nitrogen or ammonium sulphate had caused soil to turn acidic.

If soil acidity increases, farmers can neutralise the soil by adding lime under the supervision of the division, he said.

“But if more than the optimal amount is used it can damage the soil, which is known as over-liming, or cause lime burn to crops,” U Kyaw Yee said.

Farmers with any concerns about nutrition levels or the acidity of their soil should take a sample to a laboratory for testing.

“All of our laboratory personnel are highly experienced and they can help farmers solve the problem,” he said.

U Kyaw Yee said excessive amounts of chemical fertiliser could damage soil but such a situation was not a serious concern in Myanmar because application rates were much lower than other countries in the region.

He said the amount of fertilisers used by Myanmar farmers was lower than that advised by the division to achieve target yields.

He said the optimum fertiliser applications needed to achieve the paddy target yield of 100 baskets (4600lbs or 2086kg) an acre were 100g of urea (nitrogen), 50g of phosphorous and 25kg of potassium.

The application rates were based on the country’s soil quality, cultivation techniques and the varieties of rice planted.

“Those amounts cannot harm the soil because they are what the plants use,” U Kyaw Yee said.

But to achieve the production target, farmers had to use high-yield varieties, such as sinthwelatt, shweyinnaye and sinshwewar, as well as the optimum application rates, he said.

Fertilisers also needed to be applied at the right time to achieve the maximum benefit.