Agriculture Finance : Rs.100 crore to prepare soil health cards

Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has allocated Rs 100 crore to states to prepare soil health cards for farmers to boost farm productivity. Singh said "1.5 crore soil samples would have to be taken in order to provide this card to all farmers in the country by March 2017".

NDA government had allocated Rs 27 crore to states in the first year. This year Rs 100 crore has been given for preparation of Soil Health Cards. The 'Soil Health Card' scheme was first announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in July 2014 Budget.

About 5 crore soil health cards will be given to farmers by the end of the current fiscal. By the end of 2017 we assure that all farmers have a soil health card, he added.

Soil health card carries the information about the health of the soil, the diseases, if any, in it and the nutrient it needs. Availability of the information through such cards will help increase crop productivity as well as keep land in cultivation for long time, he added.

1.5 crore soil samples have to be taken and based on one sample soil health card for 5-6 farmers. It is estimated that Rs 568 crore will be needed for providing soil health card to 13.5 crore farmers.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com