Why It Is Important To Improve Soil Health?

Soil is one of the key ingredients of life as we know it.

It is the largest component of the landmass from where we get most of our food and natural resources.

Apart from that, soil also regulates a number of processes like decomposition, nutrient cycling, food chain, seasons, and so on. At the same time, it preserves natural resources like air, water, metals, and minerals that we consume.

But sadly, due to increased human activity and interference with nature, the quality of soil has been put into jeopardy.

As an estimate, about 24%, or almost a quarter of all the productive land has been lost or degraded already.

A lack of productive land means a lack of food productivity. Yet, that’s not the only thing that gets affected.

Importance of Soil health

Soil is basically an amalgam of rock, clay, sand, water, air, minerals,  nutrients, organic matter, and microorganisms.

Together, they work day and night to carry out a number of processes that are quintessential for life.

For instance, 

1. Providing fertility and nutrients to plants.
2. Regulating water, air, minerals, and nutrients through a complex network of plant roots and microorganisms.
3. Helping microbes such as bacteria, algae, fungi, etc to survive.
4. Retaining moisture and decomposition of dead animals and plants.
5. Providing shelter to insects, reptiles, birds, and animals as a safe haven for the purpose of nesting, breeding, reproduction, hatching of eggs, etc.
6. Delivering essential minerals and elements to plants and all other life forms.
7. Performing nutrient cycling and pest control.
8. Preserving minerals and heavy metals.

As you can see, the functions of soil are broad but fundamental.

In essence, it’s what keeps the machinery of life on Earth running.

Unfortunately, the impact of human activities has caused irreversible damage to the anatomy of land and soil health.

Reasons for soil degradation

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the degradation and desertification of fertile land all across the world.

Some of them include:

• Soil erosion
• Deforestation
• Landfills
• Flattening of hills
• Drying wetlands
• Mining
• Tempering with rivers to create artificial lakes and dams
• Man-made landscapes with no regard for soil health

Moreover, many of the proven methods like slash-and-burn agriculture, and the practice of leaving land so as to let it rejuvenate are no longer possible in modern times. On the contrary, it has passed the point of prevention! And the only thing left now is a few last attempts at curing or fixing the gifts of nature.

Better late than never though! Governments across the world have been taking significant measures to reverse land degradation and combat desertification. The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are an example of a large-scale approach that addresses all kinds of land and soil health issues.

As far as India is concerned, whose economy is largely driven by farming and the agricultural sector, there are a number of initiatives that the government has taken.

One of the most important is the Soil Health Card (SHC) scheme which was launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare back in 2015.

What is Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme?

Also known as the Mudra Health Card Program, it is a special initiative by the Indian govt that helps farmers produce high-quality crop yields by assessing the quality of their land and soil.

Under this scheme, farmers will be furnished with a unique health card that would contain all the information on the type of soil that they have on their land.

As such, it would also recommend the true dosage of nutrients that are required to sustain the fertility and health of the soil for a long.

Farmers enrolled under this scheme would receive a fresh soil health card after every 3 years of owning their land.

Soil Health Card can also be downloaded or printed from the SHC portal and comes with the registry of all the harvesting seasons.

Benefits of the SHC Scheme

The Soil Health Card initiative has many advantages for Indian farmers.

For starters,

1. It helps identify the type of soil in the farming area.

2. Subsequently, making it a lot easier for farmers to choose and sow the right type of plant crops based on the quality of their farm soil.

3. As such, it also gives farmers a fair idea of how much and what kind of fertilizers should be used on their land.

4. The scheme also offers cost-effective strategies that farmers can use to boost the yield of their farms.

5. Provides soil testing facilities to farmers right at their doorstep.

6. Generates jobs and employment opportunities for rural youth.

7. Improves the quality of soil health and boosts the profitability of farmers.

As evident enough, the soil health card scheme provides some of the best farming practices to farmers and the agricultural industry. From a sufficient supply of nutrients to make the soil productive and fertile, to crop-wise and fertilizer-based guidance, there are plenty of factors that have been covered.

Combine them with other govt initiatives and schemes, and you’ll have a full-proof strategy at hand to fight any kind of farming challenges.

Other Schemes for the management of soil health

• The National Project on Management of Soil Health and Fertility (NPMFS).

• Low-cost organic Farming under the Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana.

• Self-sufficient nano fertilizers.

• Digital Agriculture.

• Carbon Farming.

• The Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) Scheme.

• The PM Krishi Sinchayi Yojana, ‘Per Drop More Crop’ campaign for maintaining soil moisture.

• Use of drones for irrigation and controlled fertilizer spray to preserve soil nutrients.

• ‘Har Medh Par Ped’ scheme to fight soil erosion and enhance agroforestry.

Moving on, let’s also give you a step-by-step guide that you can follow to enroll yourself or your farmer buddies into the Soil Health Card Scheme.

How does the Soil Health Card (SHC) work?

First things first, i.e. Registration, which is open to all farmers.

To do that, simply go to the SHC official website and click on the registration tab. Upon filling out the form, you will get a unique registration number which you can use to print out your Soil Health Card.

Following that, the procedure is rather simple:

Step 1: Scheme officials will collect a sample of soil from your farmland and send it straight to the laboratory.

Step 2: Upon testing, they will compile a list of all the traits of your soil including strengths as well as weaknesses.

Step 3: Based on the deficiency, they will further recommend suggestions to improve soil health.

Step 4: And finally, upload the report or information online for easy access to users.

What information does a Soil Health Card include?

The Soil Health Card scheme considers 12 parameters on the basis of which it figures out the condition of the soil. This includes essential nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and physical traits such as the value of pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and organic carbon (OC).

As such, there are a number of insights that the SHC scheme can offer you. For instance,

• The fertility of the soil.
• The productive value of the soil.
• Availability/deficiency of essential nutrients in the soil.
• The ratio of water in the soil.
• Other minerals and metals are present in the soil.
• Type of fertilizers needed for the soil.
• Other recommendations to modify the soil.

In one word, the SHC contains the entire status of the soil.

The Bottomline

Healthy soil is a basic necessity of life.

It is a whole separate system of living microorganisms, plant roots, and organic matter that bind together to form a dynamic structure of air, water, and essential nutrients that are distributed across all the parts of the land and its lifeforms.

Yet, soil health is also quite fragile, especially with respect to its fertility, resilience, and ability to regenerate.

And the key to maintaining and preserving its fertility lies mostly in its humus content. That’s right!

At the end of the day, it is water that helps decompose organic matter into basic nutrients. It is also what further helps these nutrients dissolve in order to be absorbed by plants, microorganisms, and other fossorial animals.

Without water, there wouldn’t be any fertility in the soil regardless of all the minerals and nutrients. And which also explains the intricate connection between all the elements of nature.