Soil Health Card SHC for Indian Farmers

In the early 2015 Narendra Modi Government launched the Soil Health Card Scheme. Under this scheme government will issue soil card to farmers to assist them obtain a good harvest by studying the soil quality. The main objective of the scheme is to issue soil cards to 14 crore farmers across India. An amount of ₹568 crore (US$84 million) was allocated by the government for the scheme. 

The card is a tool to help the farmer to monitor and improve soil health based on their own field experience and working knowledge of their soils. The card will be provided to the farmers in every three years for his land or farm. The card will be in a printed form.

What is soil health card?

The card provides a qualitative assessment of soil health and evaluation ratings do not represent any absolute measures or value. The idea is not to compare one soil type against another, but rather to use indicators that assess each soil’s ability to support crop production within its capabilities and site limitations. Regular use will allow them to record long term trends in soil health and to assess the effects of different soil management practices. This card is most effective when filled out consistently by the same person over time. It also highlights the counteractive measures which farmers must implement to get a better yield.

How is it useful to farmers?

1.    The card will act as a monitoring report for the soil which is opt for the crops cultivation.

2.   This card is most effective when filled out consistently by the same person over time

3.   The farmers will get expert opinion to provide solutions to improve the quality of the soil.

4.   The idea is not to compare one soil type against another, but rather to use indicators that assess each soil’s ability to support crop production within its capabilities and site limitations.

5.   It acts as a tool for regular monitoring for farmers to get a long-term soil health record and consequently can evaluate and assess the results of different soil managing practices.

6.   It also helps the farmers to get crop wise recommendations and accordingly the fertilizers and nutrients required in the typical soil, hence increasing the crop yield.

What is the procedure of the scheme?

The testing of the soil samples will be carry out in the different soil testing laboratories in India. The expert analysis would focus on the strength and weaknesses of the soil. After the analysis the experts recommends ways to improve the soil quality which further added to the soil health card.

How to use Soil Health Card?

1.   Divide the farm and field into separate sections for evaluation of different factors like crop rotation, soil type and topography.

2.   Select 2-3 representative places in the field and evaluate each soil indicator.

3.   Study the expressive ratings for every indicator and based on your verdict rate indicator as Good and Fair or Poor by a tick mark in the box provided.

4.   Record any observation or soil condition which helps to evaluate the ratings in the notes section at the end of the soil health rating table.

5.   Follow changes in each of the soil health indicators over time, examine current field management practices and explore options and consider alternatives for management changes in problem area.

Download the soil health card English

Download the  Soil health card Hindi

 Dedicated portal for Soil health card

The Government has started a dedicated portal http://www.soilhealth.dac.gov.in/for soil health card with the details of soil health card, farmer registrayion and the roadmap of the scheme.

How to register?

A farmer should visit the Soil health portal  with the details of his soil samples and test lab reports. Once he will do the successful registration he can keep a track of the following activities-

1.   Soil test results by labs

2.    Issue of soil health card

3.   Fertilizer and Nutrients Recommendations

4.   MIS module for monitoring progress 

Status of the scheme as on 09.02.2016

Sl. No.	State	Target No of samples 2015-16	No. of samples collected	No. of samples tested	No. of  SHCs issued
I.	SOUTH ZONE
1	Andhra Pr	400000	400000	400000	1625189
2	Karnataka	533000	54094	18556	8176
3	Kerala	63800	59913	25077	14337
4	Tamil Nadu	426000	373998	361364	1130795
5	Telangana	584000	452208	340660	692269
II.	WEST ZONE
6	Gujarat	1366000	1366000	1325000	1196000
7	Madhya Pr	805000	456200	299500	308500
8	Maharashtra	911000	834000	584000	1902000
9	Rajasthan	904000	722000	291000	580000
10	Chhattisgarh	292588	190097	119785	121299
11	Goa	25000	17715	15520	14707
III.	NORTH ZONE
12	Haryana	400000	247956	47227	30150
13	Punjab	176000	169878	72724	141776
14	Uttarakhand	67607	43156	28275	115320
15	Uttar Pr	1800000	1341922	375686	683667
16	Himachal Pr	69635	61664	34359	51866
17	J & K	55106	35000	10466	10226
IV.	EAST ZONE
18	Bihar	484000	435000	237000	790000
19	Jharkhand	47850	39310	18112	34105
20	Odisha	310000	204571	119436	254655
21	West Bengal	310000	157675	40500	5000
V.	NE ZONE
22	Arunachal Pr	9000	25000	11500	8000
23	Assam	180000	30172	11358	10066
24	Manipur	11000	3198	2015	1478
25	Meghalaya	22000	20128	15670	15670
26	Mizoram	7666	2894	2894	2894
27	Nagaland	11141	35000	10150	9256
28	Sikkim	13000	65000	65000	0
29	Tripura	10912	14000	8522	8522
	TOTAL	10295305	7857749	4891356	9765923

The program aims at establishing a single database for the soil health across the country largely. However, it is useful to the farmers and experts both. We have majority of the schemes for the farmers launched almost every year, now we have to see and watch what fruits this scheme will bear to our farmers. 

In case of any question or suggestion please do share with us in the comment section below.