 "Soil health card scheme makes slow progress due to manpower shortage")
A severe shortage of field staff at the state level along with inadequate funds is impacting the progress of the soil health card scheme.
The programme received a big boost after Prime Minister Narendra Modi relaunched it in February, with the target of providing a soil health card to 14 crore farmer families. But officials say the scheme is yet to take off on the ground due to staff shortages at the state level.
The relaunch was needed as the scheme made little progress during the previous UPA regime.
As per the scheme, farmers would get soil health once a sample was collected from their field and was tested in designated labs. For this, the 2015-16 Union Budget had earmarked Rs 200 crore. An equal amount was to be contributed by the state governments.
Data shows that till June 2015, around 3.48 million soil samples have been collected from across the country as against a target of 9.05 million in 2015-16.
However, out of this just around 0.65 million soil samples have been tested for their nutrient content.
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As a result of this, as against a target of 3.14 crore soil health cards to be issued in 2015-16, only around 0.18 million cards have been issued to farmers in the first six months.
“This effectively means that states need to scale up their manpower requirement and funding on a war footing,” a senior government official said.
He said the state-run soil testing labs are poorly manned and therefore it takes a lot of time for a farmer to get a soil health card after a sample is collected from his field.
“Ideally, the time gap between sample tested and card issued should be not more than 1-1.5 months provided all other factors remain satisfactory, but more often than not it is much more,” the official said.
The soil once tested is valid for three years, after which the card needs to renew again to check for new nutrients.
In some states like Karnataka till June 2015, not a single soil sample has been collected from farmers leave alone any progress on testing.
“For Karnataka, the state has transferred the entire staff engaged in soil testing to some other departments and are now planning to engage private players, due to which no work has started till now,” the official said.
He said the Centre has been repeatedly asked Karnataka to take action, but little impact is seen.