Soil Health Card Scheme

Why in news?

• The Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has informed Lok Sabha about the Soil Health Cards (SHCs) Scheme.

About Soil Health Card Scheme:

• The Soil Health Cards (SHCs) Scheme was initiated in the fiscal year 2014-15 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.
• SHCs aim to aid State Governments in distributing soil health cards to all farmers across the nation. 
• These cards furnish farmers with information about their soil’s nutrient composition, along with recommendations for applying the appropriate amount of nutrients to enhance soil health and fertility.

Features: 

• Soil Health Card provides two sets of fertilizer recommendations for six crops including recommendations of organic manures.  
• Farmers can also get recommendations for additional crops on demand.
• They can also print the card as their own from the SHC portal. SHC portal has a farmers database of both the cycles and is available in 21 languages for the benefit of the farmers.

Recent changes:

• The scheme has been merged in Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) cafeteria scheme as its one component under name ‘Soil Health & Fertility’ from the year 2022-23.
• The government has made some technological interventions in the Soil Health Card Scheme. The Soil Health Card portal has been revamped and integrated with a Geographic Information System (GIS) system so that all the test results are captured and seen on a map. 

Significance of the Soil Health Card scheme:

• National Productivity Council (NPC) carried out a study on ‘Soil Testing Infrastructure for Faster Delivery of Soil Health Card in India’ in 2017.
• The study was conducted in 76 districts in 19 States. It was found that:
  • Application of fertilizer and micronutrients based on Soil Health Card (SHC) recommendations resulted in 8-10 % of savings.
  • Overall increase in the yield of crops to the tune of 5-6% reported by adopting the SHC recommendations.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Which of the following statements is/are correct regarding the ‘Soil Health Card Scheme’?

1. Soil Health Card provides fertilizer recommendations for farmers. 

2. Soil Health Cards are distributed by State Governments.

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer