SMS alerts on soil health for Indian farmers

Haryana has introduced a unique SMS alert service for the farmers in the state to keep them abreast of new innovations in farming sector.

With this, it has become the first state in the country to introduce such a service which also informs farmers about the status of their soil cards.                                     

The government is committed to provide soil health cards (SHC) to all 15.28 lakh farmers' families by March 2012.

“The message related to farming through SMS will be immediately delivered to all senior officers of the Government of India, states officers and farmers on their mobiles in just one go,” Haryana Agriculture Director-General Ashok Yadav said.

“Haryana is using best practices in soil testing in the state. In order to create awareness among the farmers, Haryana government has started this unique SMS service,” he added

In order to improve soil health and enhance productivity, the Department of Agriculture has also introduced innovative steps to test the soil by using modern tools. 

"Due to intensive agriculture and use of highly imbalanced chemical fertilisers by farmers in the state, agricultural land has deteriorated. On the basis of soil tests, farmers are recommended balanced use of fertilisers, and this information will be spread through SMSs,” he pointed out.

"The Agriculture Department has also decided to circulate tips about increasing the soil yield, methods to stop soil erosion and to maintain the level of its nutrients through SMSs among the farmer community in the state. The SHCs will be in local language and give the crop specific balanced fertilisers recommendation to the farmers,” Yadav stated.

Agriculture Department Principal Secretary Roshan Lal said the soil test report is available online also and anybody can access and download or take print of his soil health card anywhere.