Around 10 crore soil health cards have been issued and farmers who use these have managed to save use of urea by 8-10 per cent, said Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh.
“About 10 crore soil health cards have been issued to the farmers over the last three years. A study was conducted (on the impact) and it was found that those who used these cards properly, are able to save urea usage by 8-10 per cent. This also led to increase in productivity of cultivable land,” he said while addressing 117th Annual General Meeting of Bharat Chamber of Commerce.
Indian farmers overuse urea as it is cheaper and highly subsidized compared with other macro-nutrients such as phosphorous and potassium fertilizers. Overuse affects crop productivity.
Accordingly, the soil health card will list the nutrients in the soil alongside physical parameters (like measuring acidity or alkalinity) and will have an advisory on the correct fertilizer dose that will give every farmer the optimum yield. The card will have to be renewed to keep a tab on the changing nutrient levels in the soil.
As the Union Minister pointed out, about 22.5 lakh hectares were brought under organic farming and it has been growing well.
eNAM
While, attempts are being made to connect kisan mandis to the electronic National Agriculture Market (e-NAM); some amendments to the APMC Acts of different states were also called for by Singh.
e- NAM, as the name suggests, is a pan-India e-trading platform. It is designed to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. To be implemented in various phases, the aim of the platform is to integrate 585 regulated markets across the country.
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka are some of the states that have brought about reforms to their agri-produce marketing acts.
“We have requested the states to bring in the amendments. There are 17 proposals from West Bengal that are pending because amendment to the Act has not yet been done. I urge all the states to bring changes in the act so that farmers’ income grows,” Singh said.
The target, the Minister said, is to double farmers’ income by 2022.
New Office Bearers
Meanwhile, the Bharat Chamber of Commerce, on Satuday, elected new office bearers. Sitaram Sharma takes over as the new President from Rakesh Shah. Satish Kapur and NG Khaitan will be the senior VP and the VP, respectively.