A special mission has been launched to test the health and quality of the agricultural soil in Chhattisgarh.
The campaign is meant for counselling the farmers which soil is suitable for a particular type of crop. A report card on health of the soil will be handed over to the farmer.
A master plan to test 8.78 lakh soil samples during the next three years has been prepared.
A total of 8.18 lakh soil health cards had already been issued to the farmers from 2002 so far.
Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal said that plans are afoot to issue two lakh soil health cards in the current fiscal year, three lakh in 2016-2017, 3.78 lakh soil health cards in 2017-18.
The State Government had been operating seven permanent and four temporary Soil Testing laboratories in Chhattisgarh. They are at Raipur, Rajnandgaon, Bilaspur, Dhamtari, Jagdalpur, Janjgir and Ambikapur districts.
There is a proposal to open soil testing labs at Balodabazar, Gariyaband, Mahasamund, Kabirdham, Kondagaon, Dantewada, Mungeli and Surajpur.
Agrawal said that Agriculture Science Centres are operating in 19 out 27 districts.
The State Government would soon be setting up soil testing labs in eight more districts of the State.
The Government has prepared an action plan for preparing soil health card for 37 lakh farmers during the current year, officials stated.
During 2014-15, a total of 9.50 lakh soil health cards were prepared for the farmers.
The cards would help farmers do better farming with information loaded on health of soil and the appropriate crop for cultivation on their land.
The Government had made a budget provision of `8 crore for preparation of setting up of soil health laboratories in the State.
The Chhattisgarh Government has prepared a three-year action plan to carry out soil testing of farm lands for ascertaining the fertility of agricultural lands.
The Government plans to collect more than nine lakh soil samples as part of the project for their examination.
After tests are carried out, the farmers would be handed over ‘soil health cards’.
Currently soil testing laboratories have been functioning in district headquarters of Raipur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Jagdalpur, Bilaspur, Raigarh and Ambikapur.
In December last year, the Department of Soil Science and Agriculture Chemistry of Indira Gandhi Agriculture University (IGAU) started running of its mobile unit to test quality of soil at the agriculture science centres situated in 19 districts of the State.
The mobile unit is scheduled to render its service for one month at each agriculture science centre to test quality of the soil brought by the farmers of the respective district.
In the first phase, the mobile unit reached Dhamtari, where District Collector Bhim Singh participated in a soil testing camp to learn the process and also to know about quality of the soil brought by the farmers of Rudri village.
The farmers were charged `10 as fee for soil testing. Besides, if the farmers want to check availability of micro elements in the soil, `50 would be the charged additionally.
Moreover, Agriculture Minister Brijmohan Agrawal had recently raised the demand of opening ‘Agriculture Science Centers’ in seven districts of the State.
He had raised the demand in the 86th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) held in New Delhi.
Agrawal said that Chhattisgarh is a tribal State and the farmers need to learn about modern farming techniques and thus the Agri Science Centers are needed in the State.
To achieve the target of providing Health Card of the land to the farmers within three years, it is essential to establish soil testing labs along with Agri Science Centers at the district level.
He said that out of total 27 districts of the State, Agri Science Centers have been established in 20 districts.
New Agri Science Centers are needed in the remaining Mungeli, Bemetara, Sukma, Kondagaon, Balod, Surajpur and Raipur districts. Soil testing labs are also needed in all districts, he said.
Advocating for organic farming, Agrawal said that the farmers need to be encouraged for this.
He had also raised the problems in certification of organic farm products as the process is time consuming and costly.
Agrawal requested the Union Agriculture Minister to simplify the certification process as the present process is discouraging for the farmers going for organic farming.
He highlighted the achievements of Chhattisgarh in the field of Agriculture Education and informed that there is dearth of qualified faculty in these institutions.
The Minister said that like University Grants Commission, the ICAR should also provide financial assistance to these institutions.
Agrawal also emphasized on increasing the practical training of Agriculture students from one year to two years.
He said that Chhattisgarh has increased the number of agriculture colleges from 9 to 19 in 10 years including 7 colleges started in previous year. A new veterinary college has been started in the present financial year and three polytechnics will be started for veterinary sciences.