Centre to issue Soil Health Cards

SHILLONG: Meghalaya will get a total of 2,13,060 Soil Health Cards within three years which will help farmers to improve their agricultural land.
As per an official statement, Soil Health Cards scheme was introduced in the current year to assist state governments to issue soil health cards to all farmers in the country.
The Centre is likely to develop application software for the states for online generation of soil health cards and fertilizer recommendations. Dissemination of soil testing results through SMSs will also be enabled.
For Meghalaya, in the first year, as many as 47,481 cards will be issued, 83,246 in the second year and 82,333 in the third year.
The aims and objectives of the scheme is to issue soil health cards every 3 years, to all farmers of the country, so as to provide a basis to address nutrient deficiencies in fertilization practices.
The scheme also aims to strengthen the function of Soil Testing Laboratories (STLs) through capacity building,  involvement of agriculture students and effective linkage with Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) / State Agricultural Universities (SAUs).
The scheme also focuses at diagnosing soil fertility related constraints with standardized procedures for sampling uniformly across states.
To develop and promote soil test based nutrient management in the districts for enhancing nutrient use efficiency and to build capacities of district and state level staff and of progressive farmers for promotion of nutrient management practices are other objectives.