Soil Health Card Day being observed today

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The Soil Health Card Day is being observed today. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme on 19th February 2015 at Suratgarh in Rajasthan. The scheme aims at issuing soil health cards to farmers every two years so as to provide a basis to address nutritional deficiencies in soil. The scheme ensures additional income to farmers by increase in yields and it also promotes sustainable farming.

Launching the scheme, Mr Modi said, the farmers should know the health status of soil. He said, if soil will not be healthy, the farm production will not increase.

Talking to AIR News, Agriculture Secretary Sanjay Agarwal termed it a very important scheme and said that in the last five years crop production is continuously increasing due to this initiative.

The scheme has been introduced to assist State Governments to issue Soil Health Cards to all farmers in the country. It provides information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on the appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and its fertility.

During Cycle-I (2015 to 17), 10.74 crore Soil Health Cards and during Cycle-II (2017 to 19), 11.74 crore Soil Health Cards have been distributed to farmers. The Government has spent more than 700 crore rupees on the SHC scheme.

Nagaland will be observing Soil Health Card Day today in all the 11 districts of the state in coordination with Krishi Vigyan Kendras. The day is being celebrated to create awareness, importance, values and benefits of the scheme.

Joint Director and State Nodal Officer of Soil Health Card and Management, Directorate of Soil and Water Conservation K. Khekiho Shohe said, the department has adopted one village each from 74 blocks of the 11 districts as a Pilot Village Project where the soil of each farmland will be analyzed and provided with Soil Health Card to every farmer of the pilot villages. He said, besides providing Soil Health Cards, organizing Kisan Mela and demonstration exercises in all the 74 villages will be followed in the coming months in order to familiarize the scheme with the stakeholders.

A regional workshop is being organized at ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region in Umiam, Meghalaya with Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare Parshottam Rupala as the chief guest. The programme includes overview of Soil Health Cards, Integrated Nutrient Management, presentation and experience sharing by representatives from line departments and farmers from all the eight North Eastern states.