360 soil testing laboratories will come up in 2016: Govt

Government today said that 360 soil test laboratories will become operational this year.
"In 2016-17, 360 number of additional soil test laboratories will be made operational to test major and micro nutrients. This will increase the annual analyzing capacity of state laboratories from 1.78 crore to 2.14 crore," Agriculture Ministry said in a statement.
The target for the year 2015-16 is to collect 104 lakh soil samples and test them for issue of Soil Health Cards to farmers. More than 90 percent samples have been collected, it said.
The government announced 'Soil Health Card' scheme in 2014-15 to provide cards to 14 crore farmers once in a cycle of two years, on a continuous basis.

Comprehensive testing of soil samples for 12 parameters including micro nutrients is being carried out under the scheme. The first cycle of the scheme will be completed in 2 years (2015-16 & 2016-17) with an outlay of Rs 568.54 crore, the statement said.
All the district collectors in all states have been asked to implement the latest guidelines for establishment of soil testing projects at village level under soil health management (SHM) scheme of national mission for sustainable agriculture (NMSA).