Preface of Soil Health Card Scheme, Soil Health Card (SHC) is a Scheme launched by the Government of India in 19 February 2015. Under the scheme, the government plans to issue soil cards to growers which will carry crop-wise demand of nutrients and fertilisers for the individual granges to help growers to ameliorate sustainability through judicious use of inputs. Every soil samples are to tested in soil testing labs. There after the scientist will assay the strength and sins (micro-nutrient insufficiency) of the soil and suggest measures to deal with it. The result and suggestion will be displayed on the soil health cards. According to the scheme the ideal is to issue the soil health cards to about 14 crore growers spread each over India. It will be given to growers formerly in three times for his ranch or land holding.
Soil health card studies and observe the health of soil or rather we can say a complete evaluation of the quality of soil exact from its functional characteristics, to nutrient and water content and other biochemical parcels. It will contain the status of soil with respect to 12 parameter, that is Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K), (Primary nutrient), like Sulphur (S), (Secondary- nutrient), Zinc (Zn), iron (Fe), Copper (Cu), Manganese (Mn), Boron (B) (Micro- nutrient) and pH, Electrical Conductivity (EC), Organic Carbon (Physical parameters of soil). It will also contain corrective measures that a planter should borrow to gain a better yield.
The different type of soil testing laboratories in the country will carry out the testing of the soil samples, the result of which will be analysed by the experts. The State government will collect samples through the staff of their Department of Agriculture or through the staff of an out sourced agency. The State Government may also involve the scholars of original Agriculture/ Science Colleges. Soil samples are taken generally two times in a time, after harvesting of Rabi and Kharif Crop independently or when Page there's no standing crop in the field. Soil samples will be drawn in a grid of2.5 ha in irrigated area and 10 ha. in rain fed area with the help of GPS tools and profit charts. Soil samples will be collected by a trained person from a depth of 15- 20 cm by cutting the soil in a “V” shape. It'll be collected from four corners and the centre of the field and mixed completely and a part of this picked up as a sample. Areas with shade will be avoided. The sample chosen will be bagged and enciphered. It'll also be transferred to soil test laboratory for analysis. The results are related to the strength and sins of the soil. The experts also suggest styles to ameliorate the soil quality. These results and suggestions are displayed in the soil health cards. The introductory ideal behind the launch of the web gate is to produce a single public database on soil health which can be used in the future for exploration and planning both by growers and soil experts. Right now the gate is in English. Veritably soon, it'll have content in indigenous languages too.
• With the issue of the card, the growers will get a well- covered report of the soil which is chosen for civilization of crops.
• The monitoring will be done on a regular base.
• The growers will be learnt by experts to come up with results to ameliorate the quality of the soil.
• Regular monitoring will help the growers to get a long- term soil health record and consequently can study and estimate the results of different type soil operation practices.
• This card can come utmost helpful and effective when filled out regularly by the same person over a period of time.
• The idea isn't to compare the different soil types but to find out styles to ameliorate soil fertility, to pierce the different types of soil and their capability to support crop product in malignancy of their limitations and as per their capacities.
• The soil card will help the growers to get an idea on the crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and diseases needed in each type of soil. This can help in adding the crop yield.
Dr. Arvind Ahirwal
Assistant Professor (Agronomy),
School of Agriculture,
SAGE University, Bhopal
