Soil health card scheme reduces fertiliser usage by 10%: Govt

New Delhi: It seems schemes launched by the Modi government to double the income of farmers have started yielding results. According to a survey conducted by National Productivity Council (NPC), it has come to notice that use of chemical fertilisers in agricultural fields has started coming down after the rollout of Soil Health Card (SHC).

Citing the findings of the NPC report, Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said that the industry has witnessed 8-10 per cent reduction in the usage of fertilisers in about three years after the launch of SHC scheme in 2015.

Notably, the SHC scheme, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 19, 2015, was rolled out to promote soil testing for balanced use of fertilisers to enable farmers to increase higher yields at lower cost.

The scheme has helped in increasing the agricultural output too. According to the minister, the scheme improved the crop production by 5-6 per cent. "As the first cycle of two years (2015-17) is on the verge of completion, above 10 crore soil health cards have been distributed out of the total target of 12 crore. The remaining cards are getting printed, which would be completed very soon," the minister said.

"For the second cycle of two years (2017-19, 94.46 lakh soil samples have been collected out of the total target of 127.16 lakh samples, while 50.24 lakh soil samples have been tested," Singh said while addressing a local traders body on Saturday.

Spelling out several other measures initiated to improve the financial condition of farmers, Singh said, "During 2011-14, there was only 16.13 lakh hectare of agricultural land was under the coverage of micro-irrigation. As per latest report (till December 20, 2017), 23.07 lakh hectare of land was brought irrigation during 2014-17, which is 43 per cent increase."

To eliminate middlemen from mandis, the government started National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal through which 470 agri markets in 14 states/UTs have been linked. The e-NAM has recorded trade of 144.3 lakh tonnes of farm commodities worth Rs 35,816 crore so far. As per the approved scheme, 585 markets across the country are to be integrated by March 2018.