Srinagar, June 11: Under the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme, a total of 21,211,29 soil health cards have been issued in Jammu and Kashmir from 2014 to till date, officials said.

As per official figures of the Directorate of Agriculture Kashmir, under the Central Government Scheme Phase-I (2015-16 to 2016-17) 672,093 cards were distributed, while under the Phase-II 1,015,182 cards were given from 2017-18 to 2018-19.

In 2019-20 a pilot project “Development of Model Villages” was implemented under which sampling and testing of cultivable soil was done in partnership with the farmers. The figures include 58460 cards issued under a pilot phase (model village basis) during 2019-20.

The figures said that 71,243 soil health cards were issued under State Cycle during 2020-21. Likewise, 131,821 cards have been issued to farmers during the year 2020-21. Similarly, 173,330 cards were issued from 2022-23, as per the official figures.

Director Agriculture Kashmir, Chowdhary Mohammad Iqbal said Soil Health Card (SHC) is a Government of India's scheme promoted by the Department of Agriculture & Co-operation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. It is being implemented through the Department of Agriculture of all the State and Union Territory Governments.

“Organic fertilizers have been tested scientifically in Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), institutions and State Agricultural Universities (SAUS) on various crops and soil types and found suitable for improving soil health and crop productivity,” he said.

He said the advantages of these organic fertilizers are that they are eco-friendly and not only provide nutrients for maintaining soil fertility but also improve soil physical, biological health.

The director said the government is promoting judicious use of chemical fertilizers in conjunction with organic manures and bio-fertilizers to maintain soil health, productivity.

While talking about benefits of the scheme, he said a Soil Health Card is used to assess the current status of soil health and, when used over time, to determine changes in soil health that are affected by land management. The testing is done free of cost.

“A Soil Health Card displays soil health indicators and associated descriptive terms. The indicators are typically based on farmers' practical experience and knowledge of local natural resources. The card lists soil health indicators that can be assessed without the aid of technical or laboratory equipment,” Chowdhary said.

“Soil Health Card Scheme is a very beneficial scheme for farmers. There are many farmers who don’t know which types of crops they should grow to get maximum yield. Basically, they do not know the quality and the type of their soil. They might know by experience what crops grow and what crops fail. But they don't know what they can do to improve the condition of the soil,” he said.

The director said that soil testing is of utmost importance to ascertain the fertility of the soil.

“A soil test is the chemical way of estimating the nutrients available to the plant in which we test various components of the soil. The test results help in framing the recommendations for various nutrients so that the proper quantity of chemical fertilizers is added to the soil,” he said. “It is the source of testing the physical, chemical and biological activities of the soil and in turn is the assessment of its productivity,” Chowdhary said.

He said soil testing is not only used to check the soil structure, texture and nutrient content of the soil, but also used to measure acidity, alkalinity, salinity of the soil on one hand and requirement of amendments like lime and gypsum on the other hand.

“It gives us the measure of available Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur, Boron, PH (Potential of Hydrogen) Iron and Copper present in the soil,” he said.

Soil Health Card helps in giving exact measure of fertilizers required for the purpose of growth and production of crops which is a prerequisite for profitable agricultural practices.

Officials also said that out of 20 Soil Testing Labs, 15 labs were strengthened with Automatic Absorption Spectrophotometres (AAS) while two fertilizer testing labs were also strengthened.

They also said that 21 village-level soil testing labs were established in which 21 unemployed youth were employed.