Compendium on Soil Health - Department of Agriculture & Co ...

the farmer which has “unique number” ascribed to the sample). Facility is also
provided to send the soil test based fertilizer recommendation through SMS to
farmers’ on mobile phones. More than 10 lakh samples have been fed into the system
to generate and send the soil health cards to farmers. Farmer can visit a common
service centre (CAC) near his village, present the slip with unique 15 character code.
The first 6 characters are numbers corresponding to the year. The next 3 characters
represent the district code. GNT – represents Guntur District sample. The next 2
characters, after district code, represent the mandal codes. The last four characters are
numbers starting from 0001 to 9999. CAC operator visits the online soil health card
section in www.apagrisnet.gov.in and with the help of ‘unique code’ downloads the
card and gives a print out.
3. Wall painting of fertilizer maps:
During 2008-09 Department of Agriculture had painted on walls the soil fertilizer index
maps with fertilizer recommendation for major crops in each village so that farmers
can apply fertilizers according to this map. This practice is continuing.
4. Farming situation:
The State Govt. has divided the whole State into 240 farming situations taking into
account soil type, topography, rainfall, major crops in an area and other agro ecological
parameters. Farming situations obviously vary from district to district. There are 17
farming situations in Kurnool; 15 each in Karimnagar, Nellore and West Godavari; 6 in
Vijayanagaram; and 7 each in Chittoor and Nizamabad. 15 soil samples will be
collected from each farming situation for soil analysis to judge the soil fertility status
which will be monitored for 3 years. A total of 3,600 samples will be collected each
year from the 240 farming situations. Change in soil fertility will be monitored and
fertilizer use and other programmes shall be organized keeping in view a particular
farming situation. This programme is expected to help in management of crop
production programme which is being organized with a greater scientific support and
after giving a specific weightage to a given farming situation.
5. “Bhoochetana” compaign:
The programme has been taken up by ICRISAT and State Agriculture University in the
similar manner as has been done in Karnataka. The programme aims to identify and
scale up best options (soil, crop and water management), including improved cultivars.
Under the programme, training of Agriculture Officers will be arranged on soil
sampling, analysis of micronutrients and in preparation of GIS based soil maps. The
programme also stipulates improving skills of farmers in sustainable use of natural
resources for enhancing crop productivity.
6. Change in Fertility Status:
An analysis of soil test data over a period of 8 years (during 2002-03 to 2009-10) shows
that there is a build up of soil phosphorus over this period where 46% of samples were
found to be low in phosphorus content during 2002-03 were reduced to low