Assessment of Adoption of Soil Health Card Scheme by the Farming Community in Dewas District of Madhya Pradesh

摘要

Soybean-wheat and soybean-chickpea under irrigated and rainfed conditions are the dominant cropping systems practiced in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh.Non-judicious/unbalanced application of fertilizers,little or almost non-existent ex situ or in situ incorporation/cycling of organic resources,scant respect for practicing integrated nutrient management in crops/cropping systems have continuously deteriorated the soil fertility/health hence reduced the crop productivity.To arrest such a decline in agricultural productivity and restore soil health,the Government of India(GOI)launched the Soil Health Card(SHC)Scheme in 2015-16.This card provides information to the farmer on existing soil nutrient status of his land and advises him on the prescription of fertilizers and the soil amendments that he should apply to sustain long-term soil health/productivity.Adoption of SHC scheme targets to optimize the crop yields with balanced fertilization and integrated nutrient management.It helps farmers achieve sustainable soil productivity through judicious use of fertilizers.Under this scheme,soil testing of 55,664 farmers'fields was completed and 47,404 farmers have been issued soil health cards(SHCs)in Dewas district(District Portal data 2018-19).An attempt has been in this study to assess the level of adoption of SHC-based fertilizer-recommendations in the district.For this purpose,50 SHC beneficiaries(farmers)were selected those representing 10 villages during 2018-19.The information was recorded through individual discussion with the help of pre-chalked out plan to find out adoption level utilizing the SHC and to analyze the constraints expressed/faced by beneficiaries in the utilization of SHC.According to data collected through interview of these(50)respondents,the full adoption of fertilizers as per the recommendations of SHC for urea,DAP/SSP,MOP,zinc,sulphur and organic manure was followed by 56%,46%,32%,16%,14% and 22%,respectively.Results suggest on the necessity of organizing more awareness programmes among the farmers to make them fully aware on usefulness of scheme in the sustenance of soil health and productivity of crops and trained them on the proper utilization of SHC data based fertilizer recommendations.