States governments have distributed 1.12 crore soil health cards

NEW DELHI: State governments have so far distributed 1.12 crore soil health cards to farmers and are expected to provide another 2 crore by the end of next month.

Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Tuesday reviewed Soil Health Card Scheme with Secretaries Agriculture/ Directors (Agriculture) of States. The government plans to distribute 14 crore soil health cards by 2017. In the current fiscal, Rs 100 crore has been allocated to states for making soil health cards and set up labs.

"By now the states have distributed 1.12 crore soil health cards and 2 core cards are under printing, which will also be distributed before March, 2016," an official statement said. "Against the target of 104 lakh soil samples, the states have reported collection of 81 lakh soil samples and tested 52 lakh soil samples," it added.

In his opening remarks, Singh said the Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme is an important scheme of the government that aims at promoting soil test based and balanced use of fertilisers to enable farmers realise higher yields at lower cost. It was observed that states like Nagaland, Sikkim, Gujarat, Bihar have done well in sample collection.