Soil Health Card Scheme (SHCS):- Objectives & Salient Features

Launched: 2015

Objectives

To issue soil health cards every 3 years, to all farmers of the country, 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 taluqa / block level fertilizer recommendations in various district.

To develop and promote soil test based nutrient management in the districts for enhancing nutrient use efficiency.

To build capacities of district and state level staff and of progressive farmers for promotion of nutrient management practices.

Salient Features of SHCS

It is a centrally sponsored scheme launched by the Government of India in 2015.

It is being implemented through the Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments.

The experts will analyze the strength and weaknesses (micronutrients deficiency) of the soil collected from farms and suggest measures to deal with it.

It will contain the status of his soil with respect to 12 parameters, namely N,P,K (Macro-nutrients); S (Secondary nutrient); Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micro- nutrients); and pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters).

Soil Health Card issued to farmers carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms.

Assistance is provided to the State Government to issue Soil Health Card and also develop a database to improve service delivery.