Soil Health Card Scheme
Agricultural testing scheme
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Through Government of India, Gujarat and Kerala
Scheme
The scheme aims at promoting soil test based and balanced use of fertilisers to enable farmers to realise higher yields at lower cost.
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Budget
An amount of ₹568 crore (US$59 million) was allocated by the government for the scheme. In 2016 Union budget of India, ₹100 crore (US$10 million) has been allocated to states for making soil health cards and set up labs.
Performance
As of July 2015, only 34 lakh Soil Health Cards (SHC) were issued to farmers as against a target of 84 lakh for the year 2015–16. Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Kerala, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and West Bengal were among the states which had not issued a single SHC under the scheme by then. The number grew up to 1.12 crore by February 2016. As of February 2016, against the target of 104 lakh soil samples, States reported a collection of 81 lakh soil samples and tested 52 lakh samples. As on 16.05.2017, 725 lakh Soil Health Cards have been distributed to the farmers.
Plans
The target for 2015–16 is to collect 100 lakh soil samples and test these for issue of soil health cards. 2 crore cards are under printing and will be distributed before March 2016. The government plans to distribute 12 crore soil cards by 2017.