Testing & Improving Soil Health of Bharat: An initiative for an empowered farmer with more yield & less cost in Amrit Kaal.

India holds significant agricultural importance on the global stage, owing to its vast arable land, diverse agro-climatic zones, and rich biodiversity. It is the world’s second-largest producer of agricultural products, contributing significantly to global food security. India’s production of key crops like rice, wheat, and sugarcane ranks among the highest globally.

23 crore solid health cards are distributed by testing the soil on 12 scientific parameters at around 10000+ soil testing centres set-up by the central government of India. 2,53,49,546 soil samples were taken in 10,74,12,648 SHC were allotted in the cycle 1 between 2015-17. In the year 2023, an allotment of 6995767 has been done on which 461212 samples have been collected and 15884 SHCs have been generated as per the last data.

The foundation for farmers’ long-term sustainability in profitability is healthy, fertile soil. The first step in sustainable farming is using the right amounts of fertilizers and crop rotation as advised by science. A science-based, tried-and-true method for determining the health of the soil, its fertility state, and the need for nutrient amendments is soil testing. In order to use fertilizers wisely, soil testing relies on the principle of profitability, which states that if all other production factors are operating at maximum efficiency and there are no constraints, applying nutrients based on soil testing will almost certainly result in a more profitable outcome than applying nutrients ad hoc.

As opposed to the optimal ratio of 4:2:1, India’s current NPK consumption is 7.7:3.1:1, which which was 8.2:3.2:1 in the year 2012-13. Every year, India spends close to Rs. 70,000 crore on fertilizer subsidies. Estimates place the subsidy at around Rs. 5000 per ha of net cropped land and roughly Rs. 5100 per farmer, which leads to an overuse of fertilizers, particularly NPK at the expense of micronutrients and manure. As a result, the government of India introduced the Soil Health Card Scheme throughout India, which calls for the balanced use of fertilizers (GoI, 2017).

The ministry of agriculture launched the soil health card (SHC) program on December 5th, 2015. The SHC system may be put into effect for the remainder of the 12th plan period. To all farmers, SHC will be made available.In the nation every two years to let farmers to apply the necessary amounts of nutrients based on the results of soil tests in order to achieve enhanced and long-lasting soil health and fertility, lower expenses, and higher profitability.

In an analysis report published in the year 2017 (Impact Study of Soil Health Card Scheme, National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE), Hyderabad) the main findings about the SHC is mentioned as below:-

• Given the short duration of the scheme, awareness levels are good. At the same time participation of farmers in meetings, exposure visits are not high. Awareness campaigns need to be organized on content of SHCs, use of recommended practices, reduction in fertilizer use and costs and increase in profitability

• There is no apparent or significant bias against socio-economically vulnerable sections. In contrast, small and marginal farmers benefit more in some cases.

• There is some reduction in fertilizer use, especially nitrogen and increase in bio-fertilizers and other micro-nutrients use. This is a good sign as N: P: K ratio was highly skewed towards nitrogen. Costs were reduced due to low fertilizer use. Crop yields have also increased for majority of the crops, although only moderately.

In the same analysis report, the level of impact of SHC is mentioned as below:-

• The SHC scheme is inclusive in nature, small and marginal farmers are pro-active in adoption of recommendations based on SHC.

• There was a reduction in use of urea and DAP by 20 to 30% in paddy and cotton in some states resulted in decreased cost of cultivation. The reduction in cost of cultivation ranged between Rs.1000 and Rs.4000 per acre.

• The use of micro-nutrients (especially gypsum) was slightly increased after SHC distribution.

• There was a significant increase in yield for farmers who practiced recommended practices as per the SHC.

• With the decrease in cost of cultivation and increase in yields, netincomes of the farmers increased between 30 and 40% after the SHC scheme.

A study conducted by the National Productivity Council (NPC) says the application of Soil Health Card recommendations has led to a decline of 8-10% in use of chemical fertilizers and also raised productivity by 5-6%.

The Agriculture Ministry adopted the revised design of the Soil Health Card. Ministry considered various policy and scheme design recommendations (like tenure for testing, scale of operation) while revising the Soil Health Card scheme. Additional results:

• An impact evaluation showed that the redesigned Soil Health Card (SHC) improved farmers’ comprehension of fertiliser recommendations 65 times, from 0.5% to 33%.

• For every 1,000 spent on printing cards, 1 farmer is able to understand the recommendations on the old card, while 71 farmers are able to understand the recommendations on the new card

In August 2023, Union Minister for Agriculture and Animal Husbandry replied in Rajyasabha in his written asnwer about the soil health card scheme stating that:

• Now, Government of India has made some technological interventions in New 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.

• The new system has already been rolled out from April, 2023 and Samples are collected through mobile application. Soil Health Cards are generated on revamped portal. 56 Training sessions to States have been arranged for the new system.

• Detail Soil Mapping at 1:10000 scale is undertaken using high resolution satellite data and field survey/ ground data in the priority areas of the country by Soil & Land Use Survey of India, DA&FW. This Soil Resource Information is a geo-spatial data in digital format and generated separately from SHC.

• Soil Health Card 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 soil health card scheme, now the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojna has resulted on the principles adopted by the committee formed by the Government of India to double the farmers’ income. It has proved out to be a vital step in making viksit Bharat in 2047 by strengthening and empowering the farmers and increasing the crop-yield more economically.