The University of Agriculture Faisalabad on Thursday kicked off short message service for one million farmers aimed at raising awareness about balanced usage of fertilizer that will not only reduce cost of production but also increase productivity.

The University of Agriculture Faisalabad on Thursday kicked off short message service for one million farmers aimed at raising awareness about balanced usage of fertilizer that will not only reduce cost of production but also increase productivity. Inaugurating the service, UAF Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Iqrar Ahmad Khan said that the balanced fertilizer use could result in increasing productivity of major crops up to 50 percent. He said that the country was having 80 million mobile phone subscribers. He said that out of them 55 thousands are farmers. We are sending the message to at least 25000 farmers in the each district of the province comprising 36 districts. He said that the UAF had devised soil test based fertilizer prediction models to predict the required amount of N and P for desired yield of major crops, giving the suggestion to the farmers about the recommended fertilizer usage in their field. For this purpose, farmers can visit the website: www.fertilizeruaf.pk at computer or mobile phone.