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| Soil Health Card: A boon for Farmers | | Dr. Parveen Kumar & Dr. Anil Kumar | |
Soil is an important component for plant growth. It is a living entity which needs timely supply of nutrients to be in good health. Good health of the soil ultimately gives a good crop. It comprises of particles of weathered parent rock and a variety of living and dead organic matter from different origins. Soil develops over thousands of years through weathering processes and this may include an involvement of plants and soil organisms. The dynamic processes that occur in soil create an environment where living organisms are continually affected by changing conditions, including seasonal events and climate. The man made as well as natural disturbances such as erosion, logging and digging by animals alter some physical and chemical properties of soil. Soil health is the capacity of soil to function as a living system, with ecosystem and land use boundaries, to sustain plant and animal productivity, maintain or enhance water and air quality, and promote plant and animal health
Over the years the soil health has deteriorated. In many parts of the country it has been rendered useless even for irrigation. The main reasons for soil deterioration include reckless use of chemical fertilizers, low use of organic matter and non-replacement of depleted micro and secondary nutrients in the soil. Due to all these, the soil has become deficient in various nutrients ultimately leading to farming become unproductive. Let us take the case of green revolution of the sixties. It resulted in a manifold increase in production but the indiscriminate use of fertilizers led to poor soil health. For example, green revolution demanded use of chemical fertilizers for increasing production. The proportion of three main nutrients Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium was distorted to the extreme. The ideal ratio of 4:2:1 for the three nutrients went up to as high as 19.2:5.5:1 and 20.6:6:1 respectively in Punjab and Haryana in the year 2011. Farmer thought that giving more and more urea would increase production ignorant of the fact that excessive use of Nitrogen reduces the health of crop and productivity goes down year after year. Another reason of the over-use of Urea is mainly because the government provides huge subsidy on fertilizers. The excessive fertilizers ultimately leach downward and pollute the ground water making it unfit for human consumption. Unfortunately, most of the farmers of the country are still ignorant of the soil health. Without caring for it they take crop after crop; years after years resulting in depletion of all the essential nutrients.
Soil should be nurtured well to increase production and also to keep it in good health. Realizing the importance of soil health, the central government has started a flagship programme; the Soil Health Card scheme. The scheme was launched by Honorable Prime Minister on February 19, 2015 from Suratgarh, Rajasthan. Under this scheme, 14 crore Soil Health Cards are envisaged to be issued over the next 3 years. Soil Health Card is basically a printed report card that provides vital information about the quality of soil by giving comprehensive information about type of soil, nutrient content, fertilizer required and crop suitability to ambient temperature and rainfall condition. It carries crop-wise recommendations based on the present status of nutrients in the farmer fields thus allowing the farmers to use their inputs judiciously. Soil Health Cards contain crucial information on macro nutrients in the soil, secondary nutrients, micro nutrients, and physical parameters. The card is to be accompanied by an advisory on the corrective measures that a farmer should take to improved soil health and obtain a better yield.
This scheme was originally a brain child of the then United Progressive Alliance Government in 2007-08. It was then a component of the integrated soil management initiative. But a little progress was made during the 8 years rule of UPA government since it was launched. In 8 years i. e by March 2013 only around 50 Lakh Soil Health Cards were released to the farmers.
Samples are collected in post-rabi and post-kharif harvests when there is no standing crop in the field. For this an amount of rupees 568 crore has been kept in 2016 budget and a sum of rupees 100 crore has been allocated to states to for making soil health cards and to set up soil testing laboratories. Samples are sent to state laboratories or can even be tested in mobile labs. To ensure the quality of soil sample test, the respective state governments will have to send 1 per cent of the soil sample in a year to a referral laboratory to analyze and certify on the results of primary laboratories. There is also a Soil Health Card portal. The portal allows for registration of the samples collected along with testing in approved laboratories. The important aspect of the portal is that it not only gives an assessment to a farmer about use of major fertilizers but also micro-nutrients which are missing in his field and which must be added for a balanced soil. Information is given for different crops. The system envisages building up a single national database on soil health for future use in research and planning. A total of 2.53 crore samples will be collected and tested to generate 14 crore Soil Health Cards to farmers once in three years.
Since the scheme is being implemented by the State Governments; the state governments have to prepare themselves for this new assignment. They have to increase their manpower requirement and funding also. At present it takes a lot of time for the farmer to get his soil tested. The soil testing laboratories have to be made properly functional and the time lag has to be done away with. The progress in issuing soil health card has been mixed among the states. While states like Tamil Nadu and Punjab exceeded targets for collection of soil samples during the kharif season. Punjab had disbursed 27,307 till July 2016. Andhra Pradesh had distributed 16.3 lakh cards followed by Uttar Pradesh that disbursed 47,378, Punjab (27,307), Chhattisgarh (22,570), Telangana (15,171) and Odisha (10,245). There are states like Kerala, Sikkim and others which have not even begun to collect soil samples for testing.
India imports 25 to 30 per cent of its requirement of Urea, 90 per cent of the requirement of Di ammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 100 per cent of its requirements of Murate of Potash (MOP). With the new soil test based fertilizer based recommendation, it will be possible for the farmer now to use the fertilizer doses as per recommendation. This in turn will reduce the indiscriminate use of chemical fertilizers and our dependency on imports will reduce further besides preventing the climatic catastrophe we are heading for.
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