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| Govt to give Soil Health Cards to farmers | |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi July 17, 2009, 13:14 IST | |
Government will issue Soil Health Cards to all farmers in the country detailing the deficiencies in the soil and the amount of fertilizers needed, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told Rajya Sabha today.
Replying to questions, Pawar said Soil Health Cards would give farmers information about the quality of the soil and what is the normal quantity of fertilizer to be used for a particular crop.
"(The Soil Health Card will tell farmers) how much fertilizer is good (for the crop) and what are the deficiencies (in the soil)," he said but did not give any timeframe by when the cards would be issued.
For this, setting up of 500 new soil testing laboratories and 250 new mobile soil testing laboratories had been sanctioned in the Budget for 2008-09, he said.
Studies have found that over-doze and injudicious use of conventional chemical fertilizers and pesticides affect soil fertility, vegetation, human and animal health, he said.
The government is also encouraging use of organic fertilizer and wormicompost as overdose of conventional fertilizers has been found to affect fertility of the soil in many places, he said.
Pawar said land under organic farming has increased from 42,000 hectares in 2003-04 to 464,000 hectares currently.Balanced and judicious use of chemicals like nitrogenous, phosphatic and potassic chemical fertilizers and registered pesticides, primarily used in agriculture in the country, is not known to cause damage to soil health and fertility.
"However, imbalanced and injudicious use of chemical fertilizers has been observed to have affected soil health and productivity in some parts of the country," Pawar said.
Government, he said, was encouraging use of organic manure and bio-fertilizers to improve soil health for cultivation.
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