Fly ash has great potential to boost farming

Rajendranagar: There is a need to have the second 'fly-ash mission' in the country for more and better utilisation of fly ash in agriculture, forestry and other purposes, Former IIT Delhi Director V S Raju at Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) campus on December 17.

Prof Raju along with the Registrar PJTSAU Dr S Sudheer Kumar, Director, Fly Ash Mission, Dr Vimal Kumar, former Director of NAARM, emeritus scientist at PJTSAU, Dr D Ramarao, ADG of CPWD, RK Kaushal, attended the two-day national conference on 'Use of Fly Ash in Agriculture, Forestry and other Applications' at the university auditorium.

Dr Raju said that, with the efforts of the agricultural scientists and farmers in the country, India has achieved self-sufficiency in the food grain production. He emphasised that due to the efforts of the First Fly Ash mission in the country, there was an increased use of it for construction and other purposes from 1 million tonnes to 160 million tonnes.

There is a tremendous need for major use of fly ash in agriculture and forestry. "To increase fly ash utilisation for agriculture and forestry, we must educate the farmers about the uses of the ash. This fly ash is very much useful to agriculture and Forests which has no ill effects on crops," he said.

Dr S Sudheer Kumar, Registrar of PJTSAU, in his welcome address explained about the achievements and accomplishments of the PJTSAU in the last five years. "University is striving hard to provide better technologies to the doorsteps of the farmers though its teaching, research and extension activities," he said.

Dr Vimal Kumar explained the overview of the two-day conference. Dr D Ramarao, RK Kaushal also spoke on this occasion. Several scientists, officers from agricultural department, students were also present and participated in the deliberations held on various subjects. This two day conference was organised jointly by PJTSAU and New Delhi based NGO, C-FARM.

Fly-ash is a byproduct of the power generation from coal based thermal power stations has been found useful in many ways including increasing the agriculture productivity by the research and demonstration projects carried out by many research institutes and agriculture universities at national level under Department of Science & Technology, Government of India. Use of fly ash also helps in reduced pest incident on the crop and CO2 emission mitigation.