About 8 lakh soil health cards distributed in state

Bhopal. The Farmers’ Welfare & Agriculture Development Department has set a target to distribute soil health cards to all the farmers of Madhya Pradesh. So far, over 7 lakh 90 thousand soil health cards have been distributed since April 2009. About one crore cards are proposed to be distributed during the 12th Five-Year Plan.
Soil test is an easy and trust-worthy method of knowing about quantity of nutrients in the field and assessment of their requirement for taking good yield. There are 53 laboratories in the state for speedy analysis of soil specimens. Of these, 24 are Agriculture Department’s labs and 24 labs are situated at the mandis of the State Agriculture Marketing Board. Besides, soil specimens are also being tested in 5 laboratories of Agriculture Universities.
The number of tillage in the state is about one crore. This makes soil testing a gigantic task. Therefore, assistance will be sought from private institutions to collect samples under PPP mode and then soil health cards will be prepared through software after testing the samples. For this, the Farmers’ Welfare & Agriculture Development Department is going to sing MoUs with private sector institutions. After testing, soil-related recommendations will be posted on departmental website for use by farmers.
Generally, three main elements including nitrogen, phosphorus and potash in soil are analysed. The analysis of microorganisms in soil has become easier after installation of new atomic absorption spectrometers in state’s 24 laboratories. Therefore, the department has instructed to test at least 100 specimens from every development block.
Of the 7 lakh 90 thousand 215 health cards distributed so far, maximum 46 thousand 204 have been distributed in Sehore district followed by 38 thousand 643 in Indore, 35 thousand 146 in Dhar and 32 thousand 813 in Sagar district.
Besides, 20 thousand 804 soil health cards have been distributed Jabalpur district, 10 thousand 759 Katni, 9,719 Balaghat, 15 thousand 953 Seoni, 29 thousand 699 Chhindwara, 3,729 Mandla, 23 thousand Narsinghpur, 34 thousand 93 Sagar, 16 thousand 557 Damoh, 23 thousand 747 Chhatarpur, 10 thousand 237 Panna, 18 thousand 423 Tikamgarh, 27 thousand 971 Rewa, 14 thousand 752 Satna, 2,722 Sidhi, 3,092 Singrauli, 5,093 Shahdol, 4,763 Anuppur, 6,019 Dindori, 4,587 Umaria, 38 thousand 643 Indore, 25 thousand 345 Jhabua, 36 thousand Dhar, 23 thousand 404 Khandwa, 21 thousand 85 Khargone, 12 thousand 434 Alirajpur, 7,889 Barwani, 13 thousand 386 Burhanpur, 10 thousand 245 Ujjain, 15 thousand 616 Ratlam, 16 thousand 63 Dewas and 15 thousand 529 soil health cards have been distributed in Shajapur district.
Similarly, 20 thousand health cards have been distributed Mandsaur district, 10 thousand 861 Neemuch district, 19 thousand 642 Gwalior, 6,120 Shivpuri, 8,720 Guna, 4,839 Guna, 5,047 Ashok Nagar, 14 thousand 710 Morena, 9,950 Sheopur, 10 thousand 777 Bhind, 9,268 Bhopal, 46 thousand 204 Sehore, 12 thousand 406 Vidisha, 13 thousand 941 Raisen, 7,829 Rajgarh, 28 thousand 438 Hoshangabad, 14 thousand 500 Harda and 26 thousand 159 soil health cards have been issued in Betul district.