*fact* Soil Health Card Scheme

 

Soil Health Card Scheme was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 19 February 2015 in Suratgarh, Rajasthan.

This scheme helps the State Governments to provide soil health cards to the farmers of the country.

 This card contains information about fertilizer and other nutrients, including information on soil's nutritional status and fertility.

1,10.74 crore were provided to farmers in the first phase running from 2015 to 2017 and 11.69 crore in the second phase of 2017-19.

It is worth mentioning that so far 429 new permanent soil testing laboratories, 102 new moving soil testing laboratories and 8,752 minor testing laboratories have been made available. Agricultural entrepreneurs are also being encouraged to do soil testing at village level.

 Till date 1562 testing laboratories have been approved in the villages and the existing 800 laboratories have been upgraded in this regard. In this way, the ability to test the soil has increased during a short period of five years. During this period, 3.33 crore samples were tested in a year, whereas earlier 1.78 crore samples were tested.

The Soil Health Card recommends two types of fertilizers for 6 crops, including organic manure. Farmers can also ask for suggestions for additional crops. SHC portal allows farmers to get their card printed. All information about farming in 21 languages ​​is available on this portal.

Training, exhibition and farmer fairs are also organized for the benefit of farmers.

 Under the scheme, 8,898 farmer training and 7425 farmer fairs have been approved for the States / UTs. Similarly, on the suggestions of SHC, five and a half lakh soil testing exhibitions have been approved. A pilot project called 'Adarsh ​​Gram Vikas' was launched during the year 2019-20, under which soil samples were taken from the fields. Farmers participated in this activity. Under the pilot project, a village is taken from each block and soil samples are collected and examined there. In this way, samples are taken from one hectare of land in each village.

So far, 6,954 villages have been identified in states and union territories. A target has been set to collect 26.83 lakh samples from these villages, out of which 20.18 lakh samples were collected, 14.65 lakh samples were evaluated and 13.54 lakh cards were given to farmers. In addition, 24,6,968 soil testing exhibitions and 6,991 farmers' fairs have been sanctioned for the States and Union Territories.

Awareness is being raised among the farmers through joint efforts of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare Departments. These efforts are being promoted through the network of agricultural science centers of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and technical support. Farmers can get information about every type of testing of their samples at https://soilhealth.dac.gov.in/ and make the mantra of 'Healthy land to farm green' worthwhile.