Soil Health Card

A centrally-sponsored nationwide ‘Soil Health Card’ scheme will be finally rolled out from Suratgarh in Ganganagar district of Rajasthan on February 19. The card, carrying cropwise recommendations of nutrients fertilizers required for farms of different soil types, will make it possible for farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs. Such cards will be issued to 14 crore farm holdings across the country in three years.
The move will help farmers identify the “health of the soil” which will go a long way in improving productivity through judicious use of fertilizers and water. The scheme will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the presence of agriculture minister Radha Mohan Singh. The agriculture ministry has for mulated a national ‘Mission’ to provide 3 crore cards to farmers in 2015, 5.50 crore cards next year and remaining 5.50 crore in 2017.
A digital system is being developed so that local agriculture science centres across the country can keep details of ‘soil test’ results. Soil samples will be collected even from small tracts of farm land in remote villages.
The system will, eventually, allow farmers to download the ‘Soil Health Card’ using ‘unique number’ allotted to each soil sample. In that case, change of ownership of the particular farm land will not create any problem in getting such cards or getting them updated.
Though a few states including Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Haryana had successfully begun distributing such cards a couple of years ago, most of them did not make it operational beyond the villages around various agricultural universities.
The Centre’s fresh move will make the scheme universal.
Since collecting ‘soil samples’ and uploading updating the test results will be a mammoth exercise, the Centre has written to states urging them to take the help of students of agriculture universities for the task. “All soil samples will be tested in various soil testing labs across the country. Thereafter, experts will analyze the strength and weaknesses (micro-nutrients deficiency) of the soil and suggest measures to deal with it. The result and suggestion will be displayed in the cards,” said an official.