Soil Health Card

About

Soil health card scheme is one of the flagship programmes of Government of India that was launched in February 2015. Schemes managed by Integrated Management (INM) Division in the Ministry of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare (AC&FW), Government of India (GoI). This scheme was launched to help farmers to know their soil health condition as represented by 12 important soil parameters (viz. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, pH, EC, Organic Carbon, Sulphur, Zinc, Boron, Iron, Manganese and Copper) and follow management practices accordingly.

Under this scheme, soil samples collected from different locations are analyzed in the Soil Testing Labs (STL) as per the norms provided in the scheme’s operational guidelines. The results are uploaded in the national Soil Health Card portal which has been developed for registration of soil samples, recording test results of soil samples and generation of Soil Health Cards (SHCs) along with fertilizer recommendations besides an information module for monitoring progress. To issue Soil Health Cards (SHCs) to all 14 Crore holdings in the country about 2.53 Crore samples are to be analyzed. The cycle is proposed to be implemented in two years, with a target of 1 Crore samples for the year 2015-16 and 1.53 Crore samples in the year 2016-17.

Objectives

• To issue soil health cards every two years to all farmers, so as to provide a basis to address nutrient deficiencies in fertilization practices.
• To strengthen functioning of Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs) through capacity building, involvement of agriculture students and effective linkage with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) / State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).
• To diagnose soil fertility related constraints with standardized procedures for sampling uniformly across states and analysis and design taluka / block level fertilizer recommendations in targeted districts.
• To develop and promo te soil test based nutrient management in the districts for enhancing nutrient use efficiency.
• To provide financial assistance to farmers to apply corrective measures for nutrient deficiencies and popula rizing balance and integrated nutrient man agement practices for their cropping systems.
• To build capacities of district and state level staff and of progr essive farmers for promotion of nutrient management practices.

Beneficiary:

Farmers

Benefits:

The scheme will monitor the soil of the farmers well and will give them a formatted report. So, they can decide well which crops they should cultivate and which ones they should skip.