Soil Health Card Scheme (SHCS):- Objectives & Salient Features
-%20Objectives%20&%20Salient%20Features.jpg "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.
