Soil Health Card Scheme
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Why in News
According to the National Productivity Council (NPC), the Soil Health Card
scheme has led to a decline of 8-10% in the use of chemical fertilizers and also
raised productivity by 5-6%.
Issuance of the Soil Health Cards has enabled the farmers to understand the soil
health parameters and improve the productivity by judicious application of soil
nutrients.
Key Points
Under the Phase-I (2015-17) of the scheme, 10.74 crore cards were distributed,
while under the Phase-II (2017-19), 11.69 crore cards have been distributed.
A pilot project, ‘Development of Model Villages’ is also being implemented by
the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare in the financial year
2019-20.
It is to be noted that, this project is different from the Saansad Adarsh Gram
Yojana (SAGY) which was launched in October 2014 with the goal of
developing the socio-economic and physical infrastructure of
villages.
Development of Model Villages
Under this project, a Model Village is selected for aggregation of soil samples and
analysis of each agricultural holding.
The programme promotes farm holding based soil sample collection and testing with
farmers’ participation.
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The Soil Health Card Scheme along with other projects (National Mission
for Sustainable Agriculture) for soil health management has created jobs for the
agrarian youth.
Under these, village youth and farmers up to 40 years of age are eligible to
set up Soil Health Laboratories and undertake testing.
75% of laboratory costs are proposed to be funded by the Central and
State Governments.
The same provision applies to Self Help Groups, Farmers’
Cooperative Societies, Farmers Groups and Agricultural
Producing Organisations.
Soil Health Card Scheme
The Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare introduced the scheme on
December 5, 2015.
Soil Health Card (SHC) is a printed report which contains nutrient status of
soil with respect to 12 nutrients: pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Organic
Carbon (OC), Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), Sulphur (S), Zinc (Zn),
Boron (B), Iron (Fe), Manganese (Mn) and Copper (Cu) of farm holdings.
SHC is provided to all farmers in the country at an interval of 3 years to enable the
farmers to apply recommended doses of nutrients based on soil test values to realize
improved and sustainable soil health and fertility, low costs and higher profits.
Farmers can track their soil samples and also obtain their Soil Health Card
report.
It is a field-specific detailed report of soil fertility status and other important soil
parameters that affect crop productivity.
National Productivity Council
It is a national-level organization to promote productivity culture in India.
Established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India
in 1958, it is an autonomous, multipartite, non-profit organization.
Source: PIB
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