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Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Ltd (FACT) has signed an memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) for quality analysis of the manure, FACT Organic, for two years.
The MoU was signed by Dr T.R Gopalakrishnan, Registrar and Director of Research, KAU and Mr V.K. Anil, General Manager, (Marketing).
Mr V.G. Sankaranarayanan, Chairman and Managing Director of FACT, who offered felicitations, said that cooperation between these two major institutions would foster the agricultural sector in Kerala.
Samples testing
According to the MoU, the KAU will collect samples of city compost at Thiruvananthapurm, Kochi, Kottayam and Kozhikode at fortnightly intervals and analyse in KAU labs for determining various parameters such as moisture content, colour, odour, particle size, bulk density, content of organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potash, carbon, nitrogen ratio, pH value indicating acidity/alkalinity, conductivity, presence of pathogens (disease causing agents), presence of heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, mercury, nickel, lead, and zinc. Only the successful lots will be accepted by FACT for bagging as FACT Organic.
Earlier FACT had signed MoU with the corporations/municipalities and other manufactures of city compost in the State for trading the compost in the trade name - FACT Organic.
From urban waste
As city compost is manufactured from urban waste, the quality control is a cumbersome process which finally decides the quality of the product.
The product got well acceptance in the market and the company could distribute about 4,000 tonnes up to January in the State. FACT Organic is widely used for vegetables, banana, coconut, rubber, pepper and even by cardamom growers in Idukki. As the product is purely organic, it contains all major and minor plant nutrients along with its other properties of organic manure such as activating microbial action in soil, increasing water holding capacity, improving soil structure and texture, controlling soil reaction etc.
The product is now available in the market at a very low price of Rs 5 a kg whereas the market price of other compost and even cow dung is much higher.
FACT is not only promoting use of FACT Organic in agriculture supplemented by its own fertilisers and bio-fertilisers, but also extending service to the society in helping disposal of urban waste by recycling it as a manure.
The Agriculture Department is also supporting FACT Organic by offering subsidy for the product under various schemes being implemented through krishi bhavans for promoting integrated nutrient management and organic farming at grama panchayat level.
FACT is planning to sell around 10,000 tonnes of FACT Organic in the State during next year and to extend the marketing to other States.
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