In a bid to raise agriculture production across the country, the Union Government has decided to distribute soil health cards to farmers after testing the soil of the farming land.
A total of 5.60 crore soil health cards would be issued to farmers nationwide to avoid unnecessary use of fertilisers and pesticides on the agriculture land.
Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh has urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to initiate distribution of soil health cards to the farmers in Odisha.
Initially, the Centre had planned to test soil collecting at least 83 lakh soil samples from different regions. Keeping in view the other States’ interest in the programme, the Government has decided to collect 1 crore soil samples and provide soil health cards to the farmers afterwards, said Singh in a letter to Patnaik.
The United Nations is observing the year 2015 as the World Soil Year, and the World Soil Health Day will be observed on December 5.
Singh has urged Patnaik to take steps for preparation of accurate soil health cards by collecting samples and testing them in the laboratory.
The Centre expects Odisha to focus on distributing the cards to the farmers through the software developed by the Union Agriculture Ministry, he further noted.