SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME

Objective: To improve soil health for more crop production Achievement: 58 million cards issued

The Soil Health Card Scheme was launched in February 2015. The target was to issue 140 million cards to farmers over the next three years. As of March 21, 2017, the agriculture ministry had issued just 58.2 million cards. But forget about meeting targets, the very purpose of issu-

ing soil cards is not being met. “Even for those who have got soil health cards, nothing has changed. The government is not sensitising farmers on what to do after the soil test,” says Raghu. Even soil sample collection is not happening properly. “Those collecting the samples do not follow a proper method. They simply collect the soil samples from anywhere and send it for testing,” says Vijay Pandey of Gorakhpur Environmental Action Group, a non-profit based in eastern Uttar Pradesh.