Questions/Answers

The importance of agriculture in the context of the Indian economy is paramount. Not only is it a pivotal component in achieving several of India’s goals- attaining food security, enhancing rural income and higher GDP growth rate but it is also the sector with highest share of employment in the country. Agriculture & rural non-farm sector in Gujarat is a sector of high importance as 58% of the state’s population lives in rural areas and accounts for almost 50% of employment in the state. In the agriculture sector, soil is one of the major components along with seed and irrigation system. The farmers use fertilizers and other nutrients without knowing the quality of their land and thus end up damaging the lands fertility. Removal of plant nutrients from soil leads to depletion of soil fertility, which shows up in crop yield decline and lowered factor productivity. Thus, the farmers were unable to make optimum use of their land and the farm productivity remained low. Government of Gujarat in its endeavor to ensure economic prosperity of the farmers by helping them increase their agricultural productivity and enhancing the crop quality through scientific methods introduced the “Soil Health Card” scheme in the year 2003-04. The objective was to provide farmers crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for individual farms to improve productivity through judicious use of fertilizers including secondary and micro nutrients in conjunction with organic manures and bio-fertilizers, pesticides and seeds. The farmers submit soil specimen to agricultural scientists who examine the mineral composition in the soil. The scientists then provide the farmers detailed information about the soil nutrients present, water content, the crop suitable for the land, the fertilizers to be used and also whether the land is acidic or alkaline. It also has recommendations on the dosage of different nutrients required. Further it also advises the farmer on the fertilizers and their quantities to be applied. Farmers are educated on minimizing production cost through advice on scientific agriculture practices such as balance use of input, micro irrigation system and IPM technology. Based on the report, the farmers can use fertilizer with appropriate mineral percentage. This has helped in soil enrichment and also reduced the erosion of the land in great extent. The farmers of Gujarat who used to grow 1-2 crops can now grow 3-4 crops with increase in their income. Till date 5.2 million soil health cards have been issued to farmers in Gujarat and 5.2 million soil samples have been analyzed in 138 soil laboratories that have been set up in Gujarat. Government of Gujarat is now undertaking a very unique initiative by integrating the soil health cards with information on crop area estimation and loss assessment with the use of advance technologies of remote sensing and GIS maps. The project “Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment using Remote Sensing and Geo spatial technologies” will be an integral of Soil Health Card Scheme which would help agencies to determine the actual farm losses due to natural calamities and compensate the farmers for the crop failure. The final outcome is the integration of Soil Health Card data with crop information of the entire Gujarat state using Remote Sensing and Geo Spatial Technologies.

Agriculture since ages has been the mainstay of the Indian population. The Soil Health Card initiative of the Government of Gujarat has helped herald revolutionary change by bringing Sustainable, Stable and Equitable Agricultural growth through scientific methods. Majority of the farmers are unaware of which type of crops they should grow to get maximum yield out of their land as they do not know the quality and type of their soil. Only by experience do they know which crops grow and they have very little information on how they can improve the conditions of the soil. The government with its progressive approach is now gathering information of the crop acreage of the entire Gujarat region. This shall help to monitor the entire eco-system of the agriculture domain, settling the insurance claims raised by farmers and inform farmers about different diseases, health and acreage of their crops. The overall objectives of the Soil Health Card initiative are: - Help farmers improve the agriculture productivity and quality of crop by helping them understand the fertility factor of their land better - Advise the farmers on the fertilizers and their quantities to be applied, and also the soil amendments to be undertaken, so as to realize optimal yields - Help farmers take decisions about the crops to cultivate along with crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required - Help farmers adopt crop diversification - Help reduce the risk in farming - Help reduce the overall cost of cultivation process by bringing down unnecessary expenses on inputs - Ensure economic prosperity of the farmers in the state - Conservation of natural resources

Government of Gujarat aims to achieve equitable growth that ensures enhanced entitlement and empowerment of farmers. Soil Health Cards provide information to farmers on nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients to be applied for improving soil health and fertility. Together with cultivation of crops for years, the soils need to be replenished periodically. It simply needs proper implementation of those strategies by the soil scientists in order to reap a good harvest year after year. The initiative fits with the category “Reaching to the poorest & most vulnerable through inclusive service partnership” in the following ways: As per the agri census-2011, there were 4.2 million (42.39 lakh) land holders in the state of Gujarat and 4.2 million (42.39 lakh) soil samples were taken, analysed and distributed from 2003-04 to 2010-11. In the second phase the land holders got increased to 4.6 million (46.61 lakh) and additional health cards were issued to the same. Eventually covering a majority of the farmers in the state. Till now around 5.2 million (52.27 lakh) Soil Health Cards have been periodically distributed in the state which covers majority of the farmers. With the help of the Soil Health Card, farmers were able to take informed & better decisions on which crops they should cultivate and which ones they should avoid. It also gives farmers idea about which nutrients are lacking and which fertilizers they need. It serves as a decision support system for the farmers. The Integrated platform of GIS & Remote sensing helps the state government for taking the decisions on the basis of analysis done by using soil data, crop information and weather parameters.

Growing population puts enormous pressure on the available natural resources. Thus, in developing countries like India, reeling under population pressure, efficient use of land and other natural resources must go hand-in-hand for a better tomorrow. It is essential to stabilize crop yield and sustain high crop productivity. Soil Health Card, a revolutionary scheme, was initiated for farmers to help them decide the crops to cultivate by understanding the soil nature. It provides information to farmers about the nature of the soil, nutrient status of their soil along with recommendations on appropriate dosage of nutrients for improving the soil health and fertility. This is a regular exercise with periodic monitoring at least once in every 2-3 years to monitor the health of soil and give farmers a detailed report. The initiative has helped in increasing the productivity and reduced the cost of production. - Experts are employed to help farmers in carrying out the corrective measures. - Technical support to increase the crop yield - Farmers get awareness about the other government schemes - Farmer can check the health status of their crop and can get necessary suggestions on the same - In case of natural calamities, farmers can be reimbursed with actual amount or proportion of the damage as Insurance Companies can verify the insured crops spatially and can compute the reimbursement in an efficient manner - Government officials can view the state agriculture scenario over a single window for much more effective management of schemes and initiatives - Officials get estimation of total crop acreage, yield at different administrative levels, project loss / damage estimation and idea of Irrigation / Water requirement assessment

Soil plays an important role in agriculture and soil maintenance would provide long term benefits. Soil naturally contains many nutrients, out of which nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium and potassium are of prime importance. These nutrients are essential for plant growth and development. Major reasons for soil fertility deterioration include wide gap between nutrient demand and supply, high nutrient turnover in soil-plant system coupled with low and imbalanced fertilizer use. The average yield per hectare of crops in India is very low due to exhausted soils which have been over cropped from centuries without adequate replenishment for plant nutrients. Therefore, judicious application of fertilizers is essential to prevent soil degradation, keeping agriculture land productive and economically viable. Soil health card helps farmers to choose the right input to get maximum yield. When the initiative was started in Gujarat, around 4.2 million (42.39 lakh) land holders were present in the state. Around 4.2 million (42 lakh) soil samples were collected, analysed and Soil Health Cards were distributed to farmers from 2003-04 to 2010-11. In the second phase of the scheme, the outreach was taken to 4.6 million (46.61 lakh) samples which were collected, analysed and Soil Health Cards were distributed upto 2015-16. Till now around 5.2 million (52.27 lakh) Soil Health Cards have been periodically distributed in the state which covers majority of the farmers. Majority of farmers in the state are taking insurance for their crops. In case of a natural calamity when the crop fails, farmers should get the reimbursement amount. The data provided to the Insurance Companies plays a very crucial role to reimburse the claims of the farmers. Government of Gujarat is now undertaking a very unique initiative by integrating the soil health cards with information on crop area estimation and loss assessment with the use of advance technologies of remote sensing and GIS maps. The project “Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment using Remote Sensing and Geo Spatial technologies” will be an integral part of the Soil Health Card Scheme which would help agencies to determine the actual farm losses due to natural calamities and compensate the farmers for the crop failure. The final outcome is the integration of Soil Health Card data with crop information of the entire Gujarat state using Remote Sensing and Geo Spatial Technologies. In July 2017, two districts of Gujarat, Patan and Banaskantha were heavily affected by floods. For the reimbursement of the insurance claims and providing assistance for flood relief, the Government of Gujarat had to conduct a field survey for the loss assessment. The field survey involved heavy manpower and was a time consuming process. In order to overcome this issue, the Government of Gujarat decided to conduct satellite imagery survey in the flood affected area along with drone survey in around 45 villages which were the most affected. In only 8 days an area of almost 55,000 Hectares was covered by drone survey in the 45 villages and their claim settlement was completed. This innovative initiative of survey using drones was highly appreciated by the farmers, bureaucrats and local media. The initiative helps smoothen the claim reimbursement process by allowing rapid verification.

The soil health card initiative helps address two major aspects of agriculture: increased productivity and profitability and preservation of natural resources. When soil nutrients are missing or in short supply, plants suffer from nutrient deficiency and stop growing. Application of fertilizers to soils as per requirement is very important to provide balanced nutrients to the plants grown on it. A study conducted by National Productivity Council (NPC) in 2016 has shown that 84% of farmers have expressed that they have applied the nutrients recommendations suggested in soil health card that have proven to be beneficial to them in reducing the cost of cultivation and improving productivity of crops.  This reduces cost and increases production. The agricultural income of Gujarat rose from Rs. 14,000 crore in 2000-01 to staggeringly high of Rs.80,000 crore in 2010-11. During the period 2011-12 to 2015-16(Q), the GSDP for agriculture sector including animal husbandry sector had increased from INR 98015 crore to INR 1,04,138 crore at constant (2011-12) prices. - 1/3 of total Cotton production in the country - 30% of Groundnut production of the country with yield of 1870 kg/ha - 84% of Castor production in country with Highest productivity in world of 1978 kg/ha - Highest productivity of Cummin - 90 % of India’s total Fennel production - Monopoly in India in Psyllium Husk (Isabgul) processing

Soil Health Card is a great step towards sustainable agriculture. To protect soil health and for sustainable agriculture, Government of Gujarat became the first Indian state to implement the Soil Health Card Scheme in 2003-04. Under the scheme, Soil Health Cards are issued to farmers containing information on soil type, cropping pattern, crop sequence, fertilizer dose on the basis of soil analysis etc. The farmers are advised to use chemical fertilizers on the basis of information provided in soil health card, which has resulted into optimum yield and thereby increased farmers income. It was the vision of then Hon. Chief Minister of Gujarat Mr. Narendra Modi to implement this innovation which helped reap multiple benefits to farmers of the state. Conceptualizing & creating the infrastructure required for this scheme was completely dependent on the Government of Gujarat. Until date many different organizations have tried to estimate crop acreage using remote sensing but their scope was limited to identifying the vegetation in a particular area which may have included forests also. Some research institutes tried to bifurcate the same but it was limited to a particular district of tehsil. Across India, Government of Gujarat was the first state to completely cover the entire state where different crops are being identified using Satellite Images on this scale and Soil Health Card data is being integrated with the crop data.

The innovative scheme implemented by the Government of Gujarat across the state was first of its kind. The scale at which the project was implemented was like none other giving widespread benefits of the Soil Health Card to the farmers. To further innovate & improve the scheme, the Government of Gujarat decided to integrate the Soil Health Cards with the Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment using Remote Sensing and Geo-spatial Technologies. Under this project around 18,000 villages of 250 talukas of 33 districts in Gujarat are covered. The agricultural area which is being covered is around 9.6 million (96 lakh) hectares which is the cultivable area in Gujarat.

For the Soil Health Card, Government of Gujarat had followed the PPP model. When the scheme started, the state had around 22 labs for analyzing soil samples. Government of Gujarat also further developed the infrastructure and increased the number of labs. But in the coming years, the government decided to outsource the collection and processing of soil samples. The government arranged skill development training programs for the staff belonging to the outsourcing agencies. The outsourcing agencies started using Labs of APMC, Sugar Co Operatives, Board Corporations and Science Colleges. Today the state has a total of 138 labs. Out of these labs, 80 labs have the facility of Micronutrient analysis. Currently 8,00,000 samples could be processed annually. For the integration of the Soil Health Card with Crop Acreage, the implementing agency is procuring high resolution satellite images (<5m resolution). Processing and classification is done on the images and based on the analysis different reports are submitted to the department. The analysis is also put on it’s web application where different stakeholders can view and download the data. The processing and analysis of the satellite images are done by the 50+ GIS & Remote Sensing Professionals, Agriculture Experts and domain experts. The other staff involved in this project are data entry operators, IT Experts, Network Engineers and Developers. Huge amount of data is being processed and download on a daily basis as the web application developed by the implementing agency is being accessed by all districts officials and field staff in the state of Gujarat.

Yes

The Soil Health Card scheme was initiated across the state by then chief minister Shri Narendra Modi in 2003-04. Gujarat was the first state to initiate such a scheme. The scheme was planned to be implemented in two phases. When the second phase ended in 2015-16, many states had studied the growth of the scheme and how farmers were benefited by it. This led to many states starting a scheme of similar nature. When Mr. Narendra Modi became the Hon. Prime Minister of India, he launched the scheme at a national level in February 2015 with a target to cover maximum number of farmers across the country. In a similar way integrating the Soil Health Card with the Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment using Remote Sensing and Geo-spatial Technologies, Gujarat is the first state to implement the project on this scale.

Soil Health Card carries crop wise recommendation of nutrients and fertilizer required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs. The Soil Health Card scheme is sustainable as this is an entirely government driven program. When the farmer starts following the instructions as per the Soil Health Card they do not observe the change instantaneously. It is a long process where consistent application over a few years shall help the farmers obtain more yield. Economically also farmers start getting benefits if the liveliness of the soil is maintained. Since the analysis is a periodic process, the initiative shall continue in the future. In a similar way Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with integration of Soil Health Card data shall also go on simultaneously. A farm will get the soil card once in every 2 years so that nutrients deficiency can be regularly detected and improved. GPS based soil sample collection has been made compulsory to monitor the changes in soil and to prepare a systematic database to compare them with the previous reports. Uniform soil sample collection and testing methods are being adopted wherein 12 soil health parameters such as primary nutrients (NPK), secondary nutrients (such as sulphur) and micro-nutrients (boron, zinc, copper etc.), are being analyzed. Secondary nutrients and micro-nutrients analysis are compulsory. Moreover, with the integration of technology and GIS mapping, GIS coordinates will be mapped with the card at the time of sample collection in the field and indicate the location from where the sample has been collected. 

The Soil Health Card Initiative is sustainable in terms of durability in time because in each year the outreach is increased and number of land holders/farmers is increased. The re-surveys are carried out after every 2-3 years to see if there is any change in the soil composition status. Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with integration of Soil Health Card has been implemented for two crop seasons.

Yes

The initiative has been evaluated by Pidilite Industries Limited, a private organization and Soil & Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI), a government organization. SLUSI had evaluated the initiative in 3 villages namely Navra, Sisodara and Dhanor ,one fertilizer retail outlet at Rajpipla and State Soil Testing Laboratory at Rajpipla for determining the status of the Soil Health Card scheme in Narmada district of Gujarat. Pidilite had evaluated Soil testing labs run by APMC in Kaparada (Valsad District), Hapa (Jamnagar District), Savarkundala (Amreli District) and Visavadar (Junagadh District). It also evaluated Soil Testing labs run by academic institutes such as Government Science College (Idar), K K Shah Science College (Ahmedabad). Pidilite evaluated Soil Testing Lab run by government in Sabarmati (Ahmedabad), Amreli and Pilvai (Mehsana) regions as well. The above evaluation process had received 90% positive results. Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with integration of Soil Health Card started recently so it has not gone through any formal evaluation yet. However, the process followed by the Implementing Agency and the accuracy of the results were independently checked by a Technical Committee. The findings of the committee showed more than 70% of accuracy in the data. The accuracy is expected to further gradually increase when the crop signature library using Satellite Image would be rich enough in the coming years.

Following were the suggestions provided by the evaluations (Pidilite Industries Limited and Soil & Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI)): - 90% of the farmers are using the recommendations for application of fertilizers for their crops in different fields. - For collection & testing of samples, Milk Cooperatives & local NGOs need to be involved. - Labs itself to have printing facility of the Soil Health Cards rather than a centralized mechanism which would reduce the delivery time. - The Technical Committee is checking the submitted reports and data for the Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment project integration with Soil Health Card and continuously giving suggestions to improve the overall result and accuracy of the project.

The evaluation (Pidilite Industries Limited and Soil & Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI)) process had considered following indicators: Manpower: - Whether required number of qualified manpower with relevant experience was available in the lab?   Procurement and Stock Management: -How the chemicals are procured? What is the frequency of purchase? How the quality is assured? How the expired chemicals are identified? How the spoiled chemicals are discarded?  Soil Sample Treatment: -How the soil samples are collected? From which location the samples are collected? What information is collected with the samples? How the Soil Sample Handling and Pre-treatment process are followed? Soil Sample Analysis: - How the Ph, Electric conductivity, Organic Carbon, Phosphorus, Potassium and Micronutrients are determined?   Instrument Availability: - Whether Ph meter, EC meter, Colorimeter, Flame Photometer, AAS machine, Auto Water Testing Machine, Shake Machine, Digital Balance, Double distillation water machine and Mridaparikshak mini lab Kit are available in the lab? - For Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with integration of Soil Health Card initiative, the Technical Committee has considered following factors: Satellite Image: - What is the resolution of the Image? How the image is being processed? How many crops are identified? What are the NDVI Values of each crop? What is the range for different crop health? Methodology: Once the image is processed which classification method is used? How the cloud cover is being removed from the Satellite Image? What kind of input data is being used and what is the accuracy of Field Points?

Convergence between stakeholders allows in delivering better outputs. - As it was the Government of Gujarat’s initiative, senior officials from the government were involved in designing the scheme. Manpower from the District Agriculture Officers are involved in the sample collection. - Manpower from State Government Labs, APMC Labs, Sugar Co operative Labs, Board Corporation Labs and Science College Labs are involved in the processing of the samples. Manpower from the centrally located lab (Gandhinagar) is involved in the printing of Soil Health Cards and again manpower from District Agriculture Office is involved in the distribution of Soil Health Cards to the Farmers. -Govt. of Gujarat had been preparing for Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with integration of Soil Health Card since the last 2 years. A number of scientists from different research institutes, ISRO and different agriculture universities were consulted before finalizing the initiative. - It was necessary for the Govt. of Gujarat to know the feasibility of the project and up to what extent they can get the accuracy. The accuracy of the result would help them to get an idea whether they can take this initiative further or not. - After multiple meetings with different scientists, the timeline of the report submission and timeline for the application deployment was decided. Multiple agencies participated in the tendering process and after verification of technical and financial factors, M/s Infinium Solutionz Pvt. Ltd. was selected as the implementing agency. - A Technical Committee was formed where representative of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) -Gandhinagar, Bhaskaracharya Institute For Space Applications And Geo-Informatics (BISAG), Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT), Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and Dantiwada Agriculture University were included. The technical committee verifies the process of the implementing agency and provides technical inputs for the betterment of the initiative. The committee has verified the reports submitted by the implementing agency and accepted that accuracy has been achieved. - Apart from the Technical Committee, State Agriculture Officers have played a major part in guiding the initiative.

Key lessons learned from Soil Health Card & Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with integration of Soil Health Card are given below: - So far the initiative has been completely government driven but now it is time where the initiative should be more farmer driven. Farmers need to be given basic training of the collection of samples. They themselves should send it to respective labs for processing. This would help reduce the overall time. - Soil map for each district is needed which would be helpful to capture the soil structure of the district at a glance - Adequate infrastructure development of soil labs in the state needed focused attention. More focus on increasing the infrastructure needs to be done so that more number of samples are processed annually and all farmers of the state are covered. In some of the activities local NGOs shall be involved. - Farmers must be taken into confidence while collecting the soil samples from their crop field. To make this scheme successful across India, farmer awareness is essential. Coordination of agricultural extension officers and farmers needs to be enhanced and extension officers should make sure that the most of the grid farmers, if not all should be present at the time of soil sample collection. This will build confidence on the soil health cards by the farmers. Crop Signature Libraries are being prepared so that each crop would have a fixed range in particular health. - For Crop Area Estimation and Loss Assessment along with the integration of Soil Health Card, real time information to the farmers about crop diseases, health and weather inputs will help strengthen the individual decision and widen the information sharing concept.