Lok Sabha Question No. 3521 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-12-10
Subject: Impact of Soil Health Card Scheme
Ministry: AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE
Asked by: Ajay (Teni) Misra

O.I.H.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, COOPERATION AND FARMERS WELFARE

## LOK  SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3521 TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 10 TH  DECEMBER, 2019

## IMPACT OF SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME

3521.   SHRI AJAY KUMAR MISRA TENI:

Will the Minister of AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  formulated  a  scheme  to  provide  soil  health  card  to farmers after testing soil for maintaining fertility of agriculture land and decreasing the cost of agriculture;
- (b) if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether  any  study  has  been  made  by  the  Government  after  soil  testing  and providing soil health cards;
- (d) if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  whether  the  demand  of  chemical  fertilizers  and pesticides has decreased after that; and
- (e) if not, whether the Government proposes to conduct a study?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE AND FARMERS WELFARE

कृ ष एवं कसान कयाण मंी (SHRI NARENDRA SINGH TOMAR)

- (a)  & (b): Government has  been  implementing  Soil  Health  Card  (SHC)  Scheme  since 2015 to provide soil test based crop-specific nutrient recommendations to all the farmers in the  country  every  2  years.      The  soil  samples  are  collected  from  a  grid  size  of  2.5  ha  in irrigated  and  10  ha  in  un-irrigated  area.  Each  sample is tested for 12  parameters namely macro-nutrients (Nitrogen, Phosphorous & Potassium), secondary nutrient (Sulphur), micronutrients (Zinc, Iron, Copper, Boron & Manganese) and others (Electrical Conductivity,  pH & Organic Carbon).  Soil Health Card provides information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and its productivity.

During cycle-I (2015-17) 10.74 crore soil health cards and during cycle-II (2017-19) 11.51 crore soil health cards were distributed to farmers. Under Model Villages programme during current year (2019-20), 11.50 lakh soil health cards have been distributed to farmers. Application  of  fertilizer  as  per  SHC  recommendation  avoids  excessive  use  of  fertilizers, leading to decrease in cost of cultivation.

(c) to (e): Two studies  have  been  made  by  the  Government  of  India  through  National Productivity  Council  (NPC)    and  National  Institute  of  Agricultural  Extension  Management (MANAGE) on impact of Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme during  2017.   The findings of studies is given below:

## I.    NPC study

-  As a result of application fertilizer and micro nutrients as per the recommendations on Soil Health Cards, it was reported that there has been a decrease of use of chemical fertilizer application in the range of 8-10%.
-  Overall increase in yield of crops to the tune of 5-6% was reported due to application of fertilizer and micro nutrients as per recommendations available in the Soil Health Cards.

## II.    MANAGE study

-  There  is  some  reduction  in  fertilizer  use,  especially  nitrogen  and  increase  in  biofertilizers and other micro-nutrients use. Overall, paddy farmers reduced use of urea by 9%, DAP/SSP by 7%, but increased use of Potassium by 20%. This is a healthy sign  of  moving  towards  balanced  use  of  fertilizers.  All  the  three  crops  showed  a decline in costs per acre by about 4 to 10 percent. There was substantial decline in fertilizer use especially urea and DAP in paddy and cotton resulted in decreased cost of cultivation per unit area.
-  Costs  were  reduced  due  to  low  fertilizer  use  and  increase  in  crop  yields  has  also been reported.
-  Increase in the use of gypsum and other micro nutrients to some extent is observed.

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