Celebration for ‘World Soil Day’ on 5th December, 2015

The scheme ‘Soil Health Card’ has been approved for implementation during the remaining period of 12th Plan with an outlay of Rs 568.54 crore. Under the Scheme, Soil Health Card will be provided to all farmers in the country at an interval of 3 years so as to enable the farmers to apply appropriate recommended dosages of nutrients to realize improved and sustainable soil health and fertility status and also higher per unit yields. Based on the soil sampling grid adopted, the total number of samples to be collected are about 253 lakh. These will result in about 14 crore of soil health cards, to be distributed to each of the farmers once in every cycle. The year 2015 has been declared by the United Nations as the ‘International Year of the Soils’. In alignment with this, it has been thought appropriate to issue soil health cards to as many farmers as possible during this year. Hence,it has been decided to complete the first cycle in 2 years instead of 3 years. The target for 2015-16 has been revised from the initial 84 lakh samples to 100 lakh samples to issue an estimated number of 5 crore soil health cards to the farmers. The remaining 153 lakh samples will be covered in 2016-17. The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare decided to celebrate 5th December, 2015 as ‘World Soil Day’ by organizing events at State, District and Block levels by issuing soil health cards to invited farmers and also educate them and create greater awareness about the importance of soil health. The Department also planned a media campaign and organize training programmes at various State Agricultural Universities and KrishiVigyanKendras, as also at the national & state levels. Letters were addressed by Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture to all the Union Ministers, all the Chief Ministers of various State and all the Members of Parliament, LokSabha and RajyaSabha to join the celebrations in their region and give appropriate messages on the role of healthy soil in promoting the Country’s Agriculture. Accordingly, the World Soil Day was celebrated at State, District, Block and Village levels across the country. The details are given in the forgoing pages.

Details of World Soil Day celebration at State, District, Block and Village levels 1. Message of the Hon’ble Prime Minister: “The year 2015 is being celebrated as “International Year of Soil” and 5th

December is ‘World Soil Day’. India joins the world in celebrating the importance of soil and its role in the overall development and the welfare of our country.Our Government has launched a comprehensive Soil Health Card Scheme, which aims at collecting soil samples and testing them in laboratories to generate Soil Health Cards for every farmer in the country.On this occasion, I urge all farmer friends to take advantage of this scheme, get their soil tested, and follow the recommendations they receive through the Soil Health Card.”

The above message in Hindi and English languages was published in all the leading newspapers.

The Hon’ble Prime Minister also encouraged the farmers with the following message on twitter: “On World Soil Day we reaffirm our commitment to making our soil healthier. When soil is in good health, our farmers get more wealth”.

2. The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Ministry of Rural Development

(RD), Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MOEF&CC) and Department of Fertilizers (DOF) have jointly celebrated the World Soil Day across the country to raise awareness on healthy soils.

3. The event was organized at the national, state, district, block and village levels.

Several Union Ministers and Members of Parliament of LokSabha and RajyaSabha have participated in the event across the country.ShriRadha Mohan Singh,Hon’ble Minister, Agriculture & Farmers Welfare graced the celebration of World Soil Day at Ranchi, Jharkhand where 25,000 Soil Health Cards were distributed to farmers.

4. The 80th Convention of Soil Science was celebrated as national level event at

Bengaluru. The ICAR organized World Soil Day at 607 KVKs and distributed soil health cards to 2,18,951 farmers.

5. All the state governments have distributed about 40 lakh soil health cards on

December 5th and will be covering a total of about one crore farmers by the end of the month. In order to keep the campaign on, soil health cards will be distributed throughout this month.

6. The events organized in the States have brought together not only farmers and

scientists but also the local representatives, State Ministers, members of legislative assemblies and self-help groups. The State Governments are organizing two weeks long campaign to spread the message on Soil Health

Management. At state functions, Governors, Chief Ministers and Agricultural Ministers addressed farmers’ meetings and distributed soil health cards to them. In many states, workshops were organized to exchange best practices in the balanced use of fertilizers.

7. Some activities of the day in various states are described below: (a) States of Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh and J&K : The World

Soil Day was celebrated in 70 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 17141 farmers participated in the programmes. Two Central Ministers, eight State Ministers, two Members of Parliament and thirteen Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 13366 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion.

(b) States of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and A & N Islands: The World Soil

Day was celebrated in 81 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 32982 farmers participated in the programmes. Two Central Ministers, eight State Ministers, eighteen Members of Parliament and 42 Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 21260 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion. The Union Agriculture Minister, Shri Radha Mohan Singh graced the occasion at Ranchi, Jharkhand. He visited IFFCO stalls. Soil Conservation awareness campaign was also organized.

(c) States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura: The World Soil Day was celebrated in 77 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 19152 farmers participated in the programmes. Governor Shri. Tathagata Roy, three Members of Parliament and thirteen Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 15267 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion.

(d) States of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand: The state level function of Uttarakhand was organized in the august presence of Union Minister of State for Agriculture, Shri. Sanjeev Kumar Balyan& State Agriculture Minister of Uttarakhand. 10736 farmers participated in the programmes and 43380 soil health cards were distributed across the state. Training programmes, Krishakgosthi& Farmer’s fair were organized. The state level function of Uttar Pradesh was organized at Lucknow Secretary (Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare) Government of India participated in the programme. The World Soil Day was celebrated in 79 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 19500 farmers participated in the programmes. 16382 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion.

(e) States of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra: The World Soil Day was celebrated in 69 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 21596 farmers participated in the programmes. Two Central Ministers, Shri MohanbhaiKundariya, Minister of State (Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare), Shri. HansrajjiAhir, Minister of State

(Chemical & Fertilizers), four State Ministers, eleven Members of Parliament and twenty one Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 15088 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion.

(f) States of Rajasthan and Gujarat: The World Soil Day was celebrated in 71 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 30319 farmers participated in the programmes. Two Central Ministers, Shri. SanwarlalJat and Shri.MansukhVasava, seven State Ministers, twenty two Members of Parliament and twenty nine Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 18577 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion.

(g) States of Madhya Pradesh, Chhatisgarh and Odisha: The World Soil Day was celebrated in 99 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 63415 farmers participated in the programmes. Shri Shivraj Singh, CM of Madhya Pradesh and Shri. Raman Singh, CM of Chhattisgarh, six State Ministers, twenty seven Members of Parliament and sixty Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 1.08 lakh Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion.

(h) States of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Puducherry : The World Soil Day was celebrated in 61 KrishiVigyanKendras. A total of 11372 farmers participated in the programmes. One State Minister, fourteen Members of Parliament and six Members of Legislative Assembly graced the occasion. 10631 Soil Health Cards were distributed on the occasion. Booklet on ‘Healthy Soil for Healthy Life’ authored by scientists of KVK, were released and distributed to all the farmers.

8. The District Collectors lead the ‘Healthy Soils Campaign’ with the involvement of KrishiVigyanKendras and active participation of people’s representatives, farmers, members of SHGs/VOs and MahilaKisaan of ShashaktikaranPariyojana. Some films on balanced use of fertilizers, soil health card, waste to compost etc. were screened. Fertilizer Companies and PSUs under Department of Fertilizers organized awareness activities for farmers in districts and villages.

9. Banners / posters were displayed at prominent places in rural area and fertiliser dealer / retailer sale points. Canopy campaign at prominent / strategic places and puppet shows wereorganized. Promotional material was distributed among farmers along with SMSs and video spots. Agriculture fair and exhibition were organized in various districts.

10. Soil Health Card campaign across the country was organized through print advertisements in local and national newspapers, video spots and radio jingles.

Status of Soil Health Card scheme as on 09.12.2015 Sl. No.

State

Target No of samples

2015-16

No. of samples collected

No. of samples tested

No. of SHCs

issued till 09.12.2015

I. SOUTH ZONE 1 Andhra Pr 400000 401782 401610 1274518 2 Karnataka 533000 0 0 3700 3 Kerala 63800 20000 9000 12064 4 Tamil Nadu 426000 364576 239366 980892 5 Telangana 584000 324561 238245 242000 II. WEST ZONE 6 Gujarat 1366000 1208000 1091000 800000 7 Madhya Pr 805000 421000 275000 275000 8 Maharashtra 911000 800000 370000 1522000 9 Rajasthan 904000 530000 190000 225000

10 Chhattisgarh 292588 92000 62000 59248 11 Goa 25000 13993 210 0 III. NORTH ZONE 12 Haryana 400000 223509 19064 20000 13 Punjab 176000 152345 66574 64897 14 Uttarakhand 67607 28562 21433 72322 15 Uttar Pr 1800000 468327 22894 66736 16 Himachal Pr 69635 50522 26377 18994 17 J & K 55106 16431 8995 8586 IV. EAST ZONE 18 Bihar 448000 234931 95709 660000 19 Jharkhand 47850 22730 5747 9844 20 Odisha 310000 97122 75814 222436 21 West Bengal 310000 96240 32000 10500 V. NE ZONE 22 Arunachal Pr 9000 0 0 0 23 Assam 180000 16847 3756 413 24 Manipur 11000 3000 0 0 25 Meghalaya 22000 19432 10589 15668 26 Mizoram 9671 2000 2000 27 Nagaland 11141 9400 8400 5470 28 Sikkim 13000 65000 65000 0 29 Tripura 10912 8388 6391 6950

TOTAL 1,02,61,310 56,90,698 33,47,174 65,77,238

Hon’ble Minister of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare addressing farmers on the occasion of ‘World Soil Day’ at BAU, Ranchi (Jharkhand)

Karnataka

Shri Anantha Kumar,Hon’ble Union Minister for Chemicals &Fertilisers Shri Krishna Byre Gowda, Hon’bleMinister for Agriculture, Karnataka State Government

Maharashtra

Hon’ble Shri Mohan BhaiKundariya, Union Minister of State (Agriculture & Farmers Welfare) distributing Soil Health Cards to farmers at Pune.

Maharashtra

Hon’ble Shri EknathraoKhadse, Minister of Agriculture, Maharashta Distributing Soil Health Cards at Jalagaon

Maharashtra

Hon’ble Shri HansrajAhir, State Minister, Chemical & Fertilizers, Govt. of India distributing Soil Health Cards to farmers at Yeotmat District of Maharashtra.

Uttarakhand

Awareness campaign on Soil Health Card

Uttarakhand

Soil Testing Demonstration at Almora District of Uttarakhand

Himachal Pradesh

Distribution of Soil Health Card at Kullu

Telangana

Soil Health Card rally

Gujarat

Soil Health Card distribution

Gujarat

Awareness campaign on Soil Health Card

Sikkim

Hon'ble Speaker Shri K.N.Rai was the chief guest distributing Soil Health Cards

Tripura

Distribution of Soil Health Cards to the farmers

Kerala

Hon’ble’ Chief Minister, Agriculture Minister and Health Minister of Kerala at World Soil Day celebration

Madhya Pradesh

Hon’ble Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chauhan distributing Soil Health Cards to farmers

Madhya Pradesh

Gathering of farmers at Bhopal on the occasion of World Soil Day celebration