If Gujarat has the distinction of achieving a record 9.6 per cent growth in agriculture, Haryana has the unique feature of being the only state in the country which has issued soil health cards to its farmers and has soil fertility maps for its entire agriculture land in the state.
The soil fertility maps are available with the agriculture authorities up to the village level and these are global positioning system (GPS) enabled and available online on the website of the Agriculture Department, Haryana.
The department has roped in the services of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for this purpose.
The soil fertility maps reveal the fertility condition of the given agriculture land and also disclose deficiencies of minerals and micronutrients, if any.
From the soil health card of his land, a farmer can know the condition of his land and get crop specific prescription as to which and how much manure and fertilisers are needed.
“There are 15.84 lakh farming families in Haryana. Of these, the department has already taken 10 lakh soils samples and issued them soil health cards after testing these samples in the 30 laboratories functioning in the state,” said Ashok Kumar Yadav, Director-General, Agriculture Department, Haryana.
Of these 30 laboratories, 13 are equipped with facilities for testing micronutrients. Based on the soil health cards of particular areas, soil fertility maps have been prepared to provide information about the soil condition of the entire agriculture land of Haryana.
When Gujarat surprised all by recording an agriculture growth of 9.6 per cent - almost three times the national average - Haryana sent a team to study the agriculture model in that state.
“After going through the Gujarat model, we have found that our own Haryana model was much better than that state,” Yadav said and clarified that the better agriculture growth of Gujarat was because they started from almost zero, while Haryana was already a leader with Punjab in the matter of Green Revolution.
The Haryana model was now being replicated by Jharkhand, Bihar, UP and Rajasthan, he said.
Yadav said based on the village-level fertility maps available with the authorities, the state government had planned a two-pronged strategy to improve the health of the soil as well as to deter farmers from going after the “water guzzling” summer paddy, also called “saathi”.
The department had been supplying seeds of “summer moong” to farmers on a 50 per cent subsidy so that they could utilise their land for the “intermittent two months” available to them before the plantation of paddy.
“Summer moong”, being a leguminous plant, has nitrogen-fixing qualities and hence improves the soil health.
The department is also distributing seeds of “dencha”, which though is a weed, fixes nitrogen in the soil and functions as a green manure for the next crop.
The department has roped in the services of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for this purpose.
The soil fertility maps reveal the fertility condition of the given agriculture land and also disclose deficiencies of minerals and micronutrients, if any.
From the soil health card of his land, a farmer can know the condition of his land and get crop specific prescription as to which and how much manure and fertilisers are needed.
“There are 15.84 lakh farming families in Haryana. Of these, the department has already taken 10 lakh soils samples and issued them soil health cards after testing these samples in the 30 laboratories functioning in the state,” said Ashok Kumar Yadav, Director-General, Agriculture Department, Haryana.
Of these 30 laboratories, 13 are equipped with facilities for testing micronutrients. Based on the soil health cards of particular areas, soil fertility maps have been prepared to provide information about the soil condition of the entire agriculture land of Haryana.
When Gujarat surprised all by recording an agriculture growth of 9.6 per cent - almost three times the national average - Haryana sent a team to study the agriculture model in that state.
“After going through the Gujarat model, we have found that our own Haryana model was much better than that state,” Yadav said and clarified that the better agriculture growth of Gujarat was because they started from almost zero, while Haryana was already a leader with Punjab in the matter of Green Revolution.
The Haryana model was now being replicated by Jharkhand, Bihar, UP and Rajasthan, he said.
Yadav said based on the village-level fertility maps available with the authorities, the state government had planned a two-pronged strategy to improve the health of the soil as well as to deter farmers from going after the “water guzzling” summer paddy, also called “saathi”.
The department had been supplying seeds of “summer moong” to farmers on a 50 per cent subsidy so that they could utilise their land for the “intermittent two months” available to them before the plantation of paddy.
“Summer moong”, being a leguminous plant, has nitrogen-fixing qualities and hence improves the soil health.
The department is also distributing seeds of “dencha”, which though is a weed, fixes nitrogen in the soil and functions as a green manure for the next crop.
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