Soil Health Card Scheme
Department of Agriculture & Co-operation under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on 5th December 2015 launched the Soil Health Card Scheme. In the state and union territory Department of Agriculture is the implementing agency which on the ground level executes the scheme.
The Soil Health Card gives all the information about the soil fertility and PH of soil by doing the soil testing. The details which the Card gives are about the soil fertility, PH of soil, and about the nutrients in the soil, and on the advice of this Card, the farmer can give the doses of fertilizers and nutrients.
Objectives of Soil Health Card Scheme
- To improve the profitability of farmers and soil quality.
- Generation of employment for the youth of rural areas.
- To update soil analysis information.
- Soil testing facilities to be provided at the doorstep to the farmers.
What is Soil Health Card?
Soil Health Card is a report given to farmers of the soil tested from his/her field. The card contains the details of the soil profile which have 12 parameters that are pH, EC, OC (Physical parameters); Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn, Bo (Micronutrients); S (Secondary- nutrient); N, P, K (Macro-nutrients).
Based on all the 12 parameters Soil Health Card (SHC) also advise about the fertilizers and nutrients to the farmer.
Soil Fertility
The ability to provide sustainable growth of plants by giving them required favourable biological, physical, and chemical characteristics as a habitat for plant to grow and also provides them with the essential micronutrients is known as soil fertility.
Plant nutrients include the Micronutrients are essentially manganese, copper, molybdenum, iron, boron, zinc, and chlorine. Macronutrients include magnesium, calcium, sulfur, potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus.
The soil fertility decides the yield of any crop and vegetation better the soil fertility better will be the yield of the crop.
What is the pH of Soil?
The measure of alkalinity and acidity of the soil is known as the pH of the soil. Basically, pH is the hydrogen ion concentration measurement. The pH scale varies from 0 to 14 which denotes the scale from acidic nature to basic nature and pH 7 denotes the neutral.
Classification of soil on the basis of pH scale:
- 5 to 7.5 = neutral
- over 7.5 = alkaline
- less than 6.5 = acidic
- less than 5.5 = strongly acidic
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