“Our developed technologies are bringing new dimension to crop farming,” said Bidhan Kumar Bhandar, director general of the Soil Resources Development Institute (SRDI) under the agriculture ministry.

He came up with the observation while addressing reporters marking World Soil Day on Wednesday at the Agriculture Department in the capital's Farmgate area.

Many organisations across the country including the government bodies observed the day under the theme ‘Keep the soil alive, protect the biodiversity of the soil’.

The SRDI, which has 26 laboratories and 40 regional offices,recommends balanced fertiliser use by analysing 40,000 soil water samples every year to about 35,000 farmers every year on an average.

Already many lands that were not cultivated earlier have already come under cultivation, he said, adding that there is ample scope to improve soil and crop management, especially in hilly areas.

Bidhan hopes that country's agriculture sector would go ahead with the technological innovations.

Meanwhile, the contribution of the Salinity Management and Research Centre at Batiaghata located in Khulna in agricultural development increased rapidly, which also changed the agricultural landscape, especially in the southern part of the country.

It invented farm pond technology, pitcher irrigation technology, two-layer mulching, transplanting method and watermelon cultivation in polybag seedling method for cultivating crops and vegetable in adverse soil and climate.