Soil would be analysed and data recorded on cards for further maintenance Farmers in Haryana henceforth will be able to not just judge the health of their soil, but also improve its fertility with the help of soil cards to be issued to them. In an innovative move, the Haryana Agriculture Department has a plan to issue free soil cards to farmers to help them improve their produce. Sources in the Agriculture Department say initially a target of issuing at least three lakh such free soil health cards to farmers during the current year has been set. Later, more such cards will be issued to farmers. According to Haryana Agriculture Minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, to achieve this objective a special soil testing campaign is being conducted throughout the state from April 28 to May 16. During the soil testing campaign, as many as 1.5 lakh samples of soil would be collected and after testing, soil health cards for these samples would be issued to the farmers. The data of the analysis reports of the soil would be registered in the soil health cards and on the basis of these analysis, the farmers would be advised to use specific fertilisers to maintain the fertility of the soil. During the current five-year plan, all the farmers in the state would be provided with such soil health cards, say sources in the Agriculture Department. Samples of the soil would be collected by a two-member team comprising concerned Agriculture Development Officer and Agriculture Inspector. The selection of date and village for taking samples would be made by the concerned Deputy Director, Agriculture and samples taken from the land belonging to the people of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, minorities and women would be shown separately. A general awareness campaign on the project is also planned to be carried out by the Haryana Agriculture Department. Accordingly, soil health and soil testing awareness camps would be organised at the block level to bring home to the farmers the importance of soil testing in maintaining fertility of the land. Samples collected during the campaign would be analysed on priority basis in soil testing laboratories and on the basis of these analysis, village-wise fertility maps would be prepared in which the details of the micro-nutrients found in the soil would also be shown. The analysis report would be given to the worker concerned, sub-divisional agriculture officer and farmers. The entire campaign would be monitored by the Directorate. Sources in the Agriculture Department say the whole exercise would prove very fruitful to the farmers, who would not just know the condition of their soil, but also what kind of treatment it needs to improve productivity.