In order to provide with soil health cards to farmers across the state, India has distributed 34.47 million soil health cards, Indian minister of state for agriculture & farmers welfare, Parshottam Rupala informed the upper house recently.
As on November 15, 2016m, 21.29 million samples were collected, 12.79 million samples tested and 34.47 million soil health cards distributed to farmers in cycle 2015-16 to 2016-17, the minister said.
Government has introduced Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme with the aim to provide Soil Health Cards to all 140 million land holdings across the country once in a cycle of 2 years.
Soil Health Cards provide farmers with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for cultivation of various crops along with soil amendments.
Nationally agreed norms / standards of 10 hectares for rainfed areas and 2.5 hectare for irrigated areas will be the grid for soil sample collection.
A total of around 25.3 million samples will be collected and tested to generate 140 million soil health cards to individual farm land holdings.
Setting up 460 new soil testing labs
For further augmentation of these soil testing labs, setting up of 460 new soil testing labs (380 static + 80 mobile) have been sanctioned under Soil Health Management Scheme during 2014-15 to 2016-17 (as on 16.11.2016).
There are 1414 Soil Testing Labs available with an analyzing annual capacity of 19.52 million samples in the country.
Apart from this 2296 mini soil testing labs are also sanctioned under the scheme during 2016-17.
| State-wise Status of Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme as on 15.11.2016 | |||||||
| Sl. No. | State | Cumulative Target for Soil Samples during Cycle-I (2015-16 & 2016-17) | No. of Samples Collected | No. of Samples Tested | Cumulative Target for distribution of SHCs for Cycle-I (2015-16 & 2016-17) | No. of SHCs Distributed to farmers | |
| 1 | Andhra Pradesh | 1348382 | 1207311 | 1095267 | 7455204 | 4355143 | |
| 2 | Arunachal Pradesh | 20532 | 14632 | 10202 | 113523 | 1392 | |
| 3 | Assam | 278707 | 103588 | 35055 | 1540968 | 81787 | |
| 4 | Bihar | 1308778 | 833799 | 501980 | 7236233 | 1635466 | |
| 5 | Chhattisgarh | 703691 | 630245 | 376994 | 3890709 | 1127545 | |
| 6 | Goa | 25000 | 25000 | 25000 | 77459 | 20372 | |
| 7 | Gujarat | 1589236 | 2005000 | 1377000 | 8786883 | 1366016 | |
| 8 | Haryana | 788670 | 761917 | 412729 | 4360555 | 299890 | |
| 9 | Himachal Pradesh | 69635 | 81323 | 80502 | 385011 | 339623 | |
| 10 | J & K | 165318 | 80181 | 52374 | 914044 | 91763 | |
| 11 | Jharkhand | 115302 | 101812 | 67732 | 637507 | 134447 | |
| 12 | Karnataka | 1665765 | 1164221 | 926529 | 9210012 | 674128 | |
| 13 | Kerala | 127585 | 90151 | 91919 | 705420 | 117623 | |
| 14 | Madhya Pradesh | 2313977 | 2029382 | 872515 | 12793976 | 2776397 | |
| 15 | Maharashtra | 2347121 | 2386912 | 1685000 | 12977232 | 5781000 | |
| 16 | Manipur | 20713 | 8630 | 4199 | 114522 | 3302 | |
| 17 | Meghalaya | 27338 | 34399 | 29543 | 151150 | 28674 | |
| 18 | Mizoram | 11986 | 8551 | 7666 | 11986 | 7666 | |
| 19 | Nagaland | 33423 | 24995 | 20675 | 184797 | 17700 | |
| 20 | Odisha | 668635 | 562113 | 414535 | 3696881 | 1306124 | |
| 21 | Punjab | 835526 | 447047 | 248099 | 4619621 | 514928 | |
| 22 | Rajasthan | 2308013 | 2082942 | 716910 | 12761005 | 1930487 | |
| 23 | Sikkim | 13217 | 13217 | 13217 | 46000 | 27000 | |
| 24 | Tamil Nadu | 1274536 | 1193722 | 898706 | 7046911 | 3688746 | |
| 25 | Telangana | 1034678 | 1088957 | 739960 | 5720737 | 2266091 | |
| 26 | Tripura | 32736 | 24935 | 22381 | 180998 | 22381 | |
| 27 | Uttarakhand | 135738 | 110555 | 99380 | 750494 | 422471 | |
| 28 | Uttar Pradesh | 4770399 | 3630176 | 1525627 | 26391089 | 4271901 | |
| 29 | West Bengal | 1300349 | 543567 | 438746 | 7189629 | 1160000 | |
| Union Territories |
|
|
|
|
| ||
| 30 | Andaman & Nicobar | 1405 | 1870 | 1870 | 7799 | 0 | |
| 31 | Chandigarh | 277 | 544 | 0 | 1532 | 0 | |
| 32 | Dadar & Nagar Haveli | 2162 | 0 | 0 | 12000 | 0 | |
| 33 | Puducherry | 3530 | 4629 | 3640 | 19594 | 30 | |
| Total | 25342360 | 21296323 | 12795952 | 139991481 | 34470093 | ||
Statement of State-wise number of Soil Testing Labs and their capacity in the country.
| Sl. No
| State
| Number of STLs
| Capacity per annum (no. of soil samples in lakh) |
| I | South Zone |
|
|
| 1 | Andhra Pr. | 95 | 4.83 |
| 2 | Karnataka | 65 | 3.0566 |
| 3 | Kerala | 28 | 2.38 |
| 4 | Tamil Nadu | 49 | 58.0672 |
| 5 | Puducherry | 2 | 0.04 |
|
| Telangana | 3 | 0.3 |
|
| Sub Total | 242 | 68.6738 |
| II. | West Zone |
|
|
| 6 | Gujarat | 141 | 14.32 |
| 7 | Madhya Pr. | 63 | 3.78 |
| 8 | Maharashtra | 181 | 24.7135 |
| 9 | Rajasthan | 114 | 10.86 |
| 10 | Chhattisgarh | 22 | 1.95 |
| 11 | Goa | 4 | 0.43 |
|
| Sub Total | 525 | 56.0535 |
| III | North Zone |
|
|
| 12 | Haryana | 40 | 3.65 |
| 13 | Punjab | 71 | 6.315 |
| 14 | Uttarakhand | 16 | 1.0654 |
| 15 | Uttar Pradesh | 291 | 42.595 |
| 16 | Himachal Pr. | 21 | 1.85 |
| 17 | Jammu & Kashmir | 24 | 1.62 |
| 18 | Delhi | 1 | 0.05 |
|
| Sub Total | 464 | 57.1454 |
| IV | East Zone |
|
|
| 19 | Bihar | 45 | 2.9 |
| 20 | Jharkhand | 8 | 0.4 |
| 21 | Orissa | 33 | 3.6 |
| 22 | West Bengal | 36 | 2.724 |
|
| Sub Total | 122 | 9.624 |
| V | NE Zone |
|
|
| 23 | Assam | 15 | 1.24 |
| 24 | Tripura | 8 | 0.55 |
| 25 | Manipur | 8 | 0.4 |
| 26 | Meghalaya | 6 | 0.3 |
| 27 | Nagaland | 4 | 0.55 |
| 28 | Arunachal Pr. | 8 | 0.09 |
| 29 | Sikkim | 6 | 0.37 |
| 30 | Mizoram | 6 | 0.27 |
|
| Sub Total | 61 | 3.77 |
|
| Grand Total | 1414 | 195.2667 |
