Soil is fundamental to crop production and constitutes the natural resource that provides mankind the most of its food and nutrients. Our very existence is because of the soil. We need to be serious about soil more than ever.
Mr. Malhotra, the Soil Health Card scheme looks good on paper. Keeping in view the condition of soil testing laboratories and reliability of analysis provided by them, it is very doubtful that Soil Health Cards will do any good.
Soil is the most important natural resource we are blessed with. Anthropogenic activities have brought huge burden to the soil in terms of overuse of fertilizer which apart from its degradation have contributed a lot in bringing serious concerns to the environment. Farmers, who are occupying this resource more than anyone else on the planet, needs to be given full focus and practical education on how to save this precious resource from degradation and to get food of better quality without compromising the environment. Though, scientists are working hard and have proposed various solutions to the existing problems, even then, without educating farmer, I think we cannot achieve much.
I agree with Sajjad Raza and would like to add that we need healthy soils and then soil security. I would like bring to notice of all readers that soil health as discussed by Kibblewhite et al. (2008) provides a very nice description of soil health. Particularly, when they say that soil health is an integrative property that reflects the capacity of soil to respond to agricultural interventions and to circumvent processes such as erosion and nutrient mining that degrade the soil. It includes elements of both soil health and soil security.
@ Prof Singh- Thank you for sharing the important pdf. I think we in India should have some forum to discuss this very important issue. It will be the best if we can go in to a project mode involving soil scientists of the SAUs, ICAR and any other institutes working on soil and environment. Question is who can take initiative in the endeavour? Many of the understanding on this subject projected by the westerners may not work in our soils of tropical environment. A true challenge! I personally look forward to some scientists group who can take up this challenge at national level.
Soil Health Card Scheme is a scheme launched by the Government of India in February 2015. Under the scheme, the government plans to issue soil cards to farmers which will carry crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilisers required for the individual farms to help farmers to improve productivity through judicious use of inputs. All soil samples are to be tested in various soil testing labs across the country. Thereafter the experts will analyse the strength and weaknesses (micro-nutrients deficiency) of the soil and suggest measures to deal with it. The result and suggestion will be displayed in the cards. The government plans to issue the cards to 14 crore farmers.
Mr. Malhotra, the Soil Health Card scheme looks good on paper. Keeping in view the condition of soil testing laboratories and reliability of analysis provided by them, it is very doubtful that Soil Health Cards will do any good.
An excellent issue tossed up by you sir. Soil health issues , do they vary according to crops and soils..?? . In the other hand, we have already sufficient information about the minimum set of soil propergies that describe the soil health with respect to most of the crops. We have oberved , when the same crop is grown on a variety of soils ( Say for example at great group level ) , the soil test -based fertilizer recommendation undergoes a colossal variation . How is our current preparedness to address this issue , in the light of current state of knowledge on soil test -crop response based fertilizer recommendation.??
I agree with Dr Bijay Singh. While complimenting the government for taking this mammoth task, I am not fully convinced of the quality of soil analysis. To meet the target in a hurry, lot of short cuts may be underway including employing incompetent manpower. I know in some states the health of the laboratories itself in bad shape. How can we belive the data that comes out of it. Soil analysis is a serious business and needs lot of supervision and quality checks right from soil sampling to analysis. Added to that I learn some vested interests have entered making money with their dubious soil test kits.
Rather than go whole hog sampling and analysing soils all over the place, we could select benchmark areas based on agroclimatic zones all over the country which could be given to identified ICAR-SAUs of respective regions and the findings could be extrapolated.
Every research papers suggested that balanced use of fertilizers and soil test based fertilizers used but farmers is not adopted such recommendations. Because of our recommendations are depend on low. medium and high values of nutrients. Soil health card is useful for soil health and security if our soil testing laboratories are analysed the reliable data. Some labs. are good job. All soil testing labs. never suggest or written the fertilizers recommendations to all crops as per STFR equation based just used such soils are low,medium and High on soil reports. It is not sufficient for soil health. All soil scientist should be focus farmers oriented research, clearly mentioned as per STFR equation based and provided LCC to every farmers. Other wise we published research papers in high rated journals.
I think , Dr Yaduvanshi is right . We seriously need crop -based STCR recommendations to suit such specific recommendations . This issue , we debated earlier also. In fruit crops , this information is conspicuously missing ...
It seems we are distracting from the main issue of soil health and soil security. The name ''Soil Health Card" gives an impression as if these will lead to healthy soils but as learned colleagues have rightly pointed out government is expecting that using soil health cards farmers will be able to use right amount and proportion of nutrients to different crops. Its different thing that soil testing facilities in India are not at all adequate to provide useful information to be given to farmers via soil health cards.
Soil health is much more than applying right kind of fertilizers in right amount. Soil health deteriorates when we excessively cultivate the soil. Even application of irrigation water, pesticides, or using heavy machinery in fields affects soil health.
May I invite views for maintaining/improving soil health and also how we can achieve soil security.
Very important!Just as to our body's immunity which supports our good health and growth needs to be taken considerably with what is fed with, similarly the soils with its best support for health crop production support both in quantity and quality, a similar and even much more care must be cast upon the health and security of the soils which are the key fundamentals in sustainable agriculture.What we give to our bodies dictates the outcome impact and a similar case to our soils dictating the produce.Lets secure the soil health that it can bestially support crop production and plant health.
I think , exploiting rhizosphere ecology would be most prudent option , however , crop-specific rhizosphere microbial diversity , their structural, compositional and functional dynamics over time and space is least understood. Some limited efforts have succeeded in proposing the crop-based microbial consortium , would go along way in facilitating the two ends meet , sustaining the rhizosphere health through better ecosystem service on one hand , and moderating the negative impact of elevated climate change -related issues on the other hand...
Very important!Just as to our body's immunity which supports our good health and growth needs to be taken considerably with what is fed with, similarly the soils with its best support for health crop production support both in quantity and quality, a similar and even much more care must be cast upon the health and security of the soils which are the key fundamentals in sustainable agriculture.What we give to our bodies dictates the outcome impact and a similar case to our soils dictating the produce.Lets secure the soil health that it can bestially support crop production and plant health.
(2) It is high time we need to be serious about soil health and.... Available from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/It_is_high_time_we_need_to_be_serious_about_soil_health_and_soil_security_May_I_invite_your_comments [accessed Sep 5, 2017].
You have raised a very pertinent question. I think we can begin by examining the soil biota including the micro- meso- and macrofaunal diversity as well as the microbial diversity. We need to focus upon the assemblage and impact of the key taxa which contribute to soil health.
Soil health is such an issue that single strategy will never work effectively, it has to be multi-pronged effort..
Dear Dr.Bijay Singh,I appreciate your initiation of discussion on soil health and soil security.As per my understanding,in real sense, we have not much progressed in implementation of soil health assessment and management under farmers' field conditions/situations.What we are implementing is soil testing in farmers' fields in large scale and recommending macro and micronutrients through fertilizers/manures.We can not assess soil health holistically as soil testing laboratories are not equipped to measure the soil physical and microbiological parameters.It is also practically not possible to analyze huge number of of samples for minimum data set of soil health parameters in routine soil testing laboratories. I also doubt whether we have equipped the soil testing laboratories to recommend management practices based on soil physical and microbiological parameters.As on today, we have succeeded to a greater extent in analsis of soil general properties and macronutrients.In many cases providing micronutrient analysis is also a challenge.Establishing soil health laboratoies,training the manpower, and providing continuous support for regular running of laboratory is a challenge.This is not to undermine the ongoing efforts but we have to go a long way to assess ,manage and monitor soil health under farmers' field conditions in real sense.We also need data centres in different states to create soil health date bases and use them in soil health .management.Excellent coordination is required among ICAR research institutes Agricultural universities and State soil testing laboratories for implementing soil health programmes.
I fully agree with Dr. Subba Rao. I believe soil scientists themselves are not very clear as to how soil health issues can be properly addressed. How can we expect government official who make decisions on schemes line Soil Health Cards to take appropriate decisions regarding soil health and soil security
We have now realized the limitations in effective launching the idea of Soil Health Cards and Soil Security with the available expertise and laboratory facilities at our disposal. Issues flagged here is of utmost importance in a country like ours. We have very good number of Soil Scientists in the country. Despite having such talent such initiation in a right direction demands an early attention and care . Question is how to go about it especially when initiative in SHC is already under way as one of the GOI initiatives? Any suggestions/advice?
Soil quality and soil health are related to Physical, Biological, Chemical soil properties and interactions between them leading to a complex ‘system
Source - quoted from Pp 10, Pivotal 5
https://www.oecd.org/tad/crp/PPT3.%20RICKSON%20J_Importance%20of%20natural%20resources.pdf
Soil scientists are working on addition of organic manures for buildup soil fertility but I thinking first we know the real problems of farmers. During 1980 our farmers prepared FYM in well structural pit and applied after harvesting of rabi crops. But now the FYM pits is never look in villages because of encroachment by some high reputed peoples of village so first our Govt. initiation is must on this aspect. Huge amount of crop residues are available in villages and farmers easily make residues + dung manure. Soil health card also good initiation of Govt. but needs to posted trained and soil science qualified laboratory staff. In my knowledge, lot of AAS purchased in state lab. but these are not working conditions. Dr. Sahib, now needs only renovation of our system through reputed high level officers in SAUs, ICAR and state and central agriculture Deptt. Otherwise systems are running well.
Dr.Pal,in continuation of my earlier comments(not concerning present SHC) I wish to say a few points pertaining to soil health assessment and management.As per my knowledge,Cornell university in USA is one of the leading states implementing the soil health assessment and management.The university has developed a comprehensive system by identifying key soil health paramters.Also based on the information on key parameters generated comprehensive management practices are identified and linked to an advisory system .Such system can be developed in India if a team of soil scientists are assigned the job and resources are provided.IISS,Bhopal led a NATP project with partners from CRIDA,PAU,BCKV,NBSS&LUP to assess soil health in some dominant cropping systems in some agro-ecoregions and arrive at minimum data set and also develop soil quality index.At least half a dozen or more institues/universities in India have done excellent work on soil health related issues and finding solutions.What is needed to develop a comprehensive frame work for assessing soil health in different production systems using quantitative and qualitative tests and link them with recommendation system.In the beginning some model soil health laboratories can be developed..Based on a few years experience ,they can be expanded.As a member a review committee on Soil Research in TNAU ,I had the opportunity to visit recently a most modern Soil Health Laboratory(It may be comparable or better than laboratories in some westen countries).Of course I do not encourage such high end laboratories for farmes' advisory services.
Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health-Soil and Crop Sciences Section
www.css.cornell.edu/extension/soil-health/manual.pdf
Subba Rao Sir,
Most of the farmers do not care about soil of their cultivable land. Ignoring the soil fertility, they give more attention on seeds, pesticides and fertilizers. No doubt seeds of better potential if used, give higher yield. Best management of pests and diseases will also give higher yield. While the fertilizers, if not used in accordance of soil fertility and crop requirement, the yield potentiality will end up in big zero. Farmer gets a normal or even lesser yield under such situations. If you ask a question to the farmer who is getting low yield, why so? his answer will be 'power of the land is low'. He knows the fact. But do not put efforts to correct it due to lack of knowledge. So Govt. of India should take the first step in all the gram panchayths that it is required to categorize the lands based on crop yield (max 3 main crops in the village) into 'Low', Medium and 'High'. Train the farmers who are getting low yield to build up their lands fertility as that of high yield obtaining plots. If this is adopted world wide, it is possible to feed that population of 2050. It is high time we need to be serious about soil health and soil security.
May I ask Dr Malhotra to share with the present statusof soil health testing, soil health card distribution and the adoption level of the recommendatiions made in the card? This is essential to make some mid-course corrections before going forward with the present approach
I think , our current soil test interpretation based on soil fertility analysis alone, is not in that state of art mode , which can provide sufficient insights into the fertilizer recommendation vis-a-vis crop yield. I agree with Dr Rajakumar . Why farmers prefer to over-look the the recommendations of soil testing , for the simple reason , it hardly addresses the real soil fertility constraints existing in the field. On the other hand, this is also true, we dont have any soil health related soil test interpretation , since there is hardly any sincere effort in this direction to address the soil health -related issues, atleast in dominating cropping sequence.
In addition to that , we also need a comprehensive modus- operandi to evaluate the soil fertility /soil health -related appraisal . We do have National Power Grids , similar to that , cant we have CROP GRIDS , so that what is happening through major cropping sequence , we are in a position to formulate the precise multi-pronged planning to ensure yield sustainability as well as breaking the yield plateau ,instead of sticking to such chronic issues. Dr Dasog has raised a very pertinent point . Dr Malhotra should be in a position to educate all of us in this direction , much better than any one else.
Each state established laboratories in tehsil level why not evaluating the soil fertility status. Monitoring and responsibility is must for each laboratories and recommendation should be compulsory on the basis of STFR equations. Another point, we should necessary make compost through sufficient quantity of raw materials available at farmers field.
SK Malhotra Sir,
Govt. of India should take the first step in all the gram panchayths that it is required to categorize the lands based on crop yield (max 3 main crops in the village) into 'Low', Medium and 'High'. Train the farmers to set the soil fertility and soil health status who are getting low yield as that of high yield obtaining plots.
Sir I request you to arrange to happen this through KVKs in India as it involves only collection of information on crop yield levels of the previous year (farmer-wise , plot-wise , village-wise / GP-wise).
Thanks
from
Rajakumar GR
I think firstly govt. should conduct various workshops for farmers awareness. Govt. should promote farmers for multi cropping with incentive scheme, then only farmers will take risk with their lands.
I do believe soils sustains agriculture, and the more we add chemical fertilizers it will further degrade. I am working on zeolitic slow release fertilizers which can substitute all the major nutrients (i.e. NPK). By tailoring zeolites we can introduce N, P and K into their framework, which will lead to a single multinutrient slow release carrier which is the need of the hour as excessive us of chemical fertilizers in particular Urea, DAP and MOP are resulting in soil degradation.
I would like to hear your views in this regard.
Dr. Vijay,is it possible to load sufficient NPK in zeolite to meet the nutrients requirement of cereal crops which have high nutrient (NPK) requirement? Do you have information on how much urea or ammonium N can be loaded on zeolite? Same is the case for loading of K.What is the amount of anion holding power of zeolite? what sized zeolites are suitable for nutrients loading? I request colleagues working in this area to share information.
Dear Prof Singh ji
Yes. I agree with your statement that it's high time that we should concentrate on soil health. We can't just blame fertilizers for the deteriorated soil health in the country, although soil health card scheme of GOI may partially help to rejuvenate the soil health. When we ignored the ecosystem approach in farming, the deterioration of soil health has set in. The good old concepts of mixed cropping/mixed farming if reintroduced in the country, soil health can reach new heights, i believe, even if fertilizers are part of the input management system, since the recycling of nutrients is arbitrarily followed in this system. The point here is that the protection of soil ecosystem which harbours varied and variety of organisms which is the core of soil health maintenance.
Most of the studies have identified top soil health scorecards, which include : organic matter, crop appearance, earthworms, erosion, ease of tillage, drainage, structure, soil pH, soil test for P and K, and yield. These score cards cannot be universal in nature , applicable to variety of crops. How does these score cards vary as per crops or cropping sequence . Any efforts made in this direction..?
Dear Dr. Subba Rao,
From my previous studies I could load around 17% ammonium into zeolites. One thing to keep in mind is, although Urea has 47% N, most of it is either leached or volatized. The plants uptake may be a 3rd of N from Urea. Therefore N loaded zeolites can be alternative N fertilizers. Coming to K, again its the same situation zeolites can have anywhere from 6-8% K in their framework.
I think site specific nutrient management helps to tackle soil health problems
It is very old concept "Better feed the soil not the plant".
The key principle behind this philosophy is avoid excessive exploitation and mining of mineral from the mother soil and to minimise depletion of inherent minerals from soil.
It is high time to do so, since UN has declared 2015 the International year of soils.
what is the cost of zeolite for large scale not for pot experiment. Those farmers mixing the paddy straw through harrow/cultivator in field continue two or three years. Farmers tell me that soil fertility too much buildup and good physical properties and save fertilizers. Such serious problems solve by our indigenous resources only.
Important question and important debate but
have not taken into account that the big or small farmer
it only moves towards where the interests of the big fertilizer companies and other agrochemicals and seeds carry it
who care little about soil health and safety
the role of honest investigators is to conduct investigations
that eliminate the products that are poisoning our floors
hard thing, because interests are at stake
Soil health is basic to crop production. Because of various reasons the health of soil is deteriorating when measured in terms of physical, chemical and microbial parameters. We are losing healthy soils due to adverse human activity during crop production, environmental impact, cultivation on marginal lands, bringing good quality crop land under industries and urban sprawl. We have to save healthy soil for future generation. We all know this but as society how to do it, Govt. will not do, land mafia is already active.
Soil is the key to life as we know it, especially the topsoil that provides a ready source of nutrients for the living organisms that inhabit it, and the vegetation that grows into it. It is refreshing that the focus worldwide has wholeheartedly begun to focus on this vital resource. I believe that there will not be one solution by one person that will steady the current fate of out soil. Rather, it will be many minds working together to find a system of solutions, and changes to the collective mindset, that will bring about slow and steady progress for a more sustainable future of the biosphere.
In tune with what many others have expressd, I think we all broadly appreciate the importance of soils. What we need is to debate how as a community do we need to act to be able to move forward. Any thoughts ?
Sir,
Namasthe IP Abrol sir.
One simple thought...
Let us adopt EYE approach
Entire-village Yield Enhancement approach
Normally we conduct FLDs with few selected farmers
But with EYE approach it is required to work for entire village.
We need to classify yield levels of different crops for the previous year in a village into Low, medium and high (yield nearing +/-5% may be included in the respective class) and soil factors needs to be analysed along with plant nutrient contents during subsequent year. Correlate and find reasons for low yield. These factors which control yield may vary from village to village. The low yield and medium obtaining farmers needs to be demonstrated to get high yield by correcting soil factor. And the high yield obtaining farmers should get still high. Entire India should adopt this.
Appreciating the nice thought tossed up by Abrol sir , we need to lay a much greater emphasis on field diagnosis of soil health assessment. This is the area , where we are most weak in rapid diagnosis of soil health.
I appreciate the ideas given by Drs. Abrol and Srivastava. To my mind rather than first assessing the status of soil health and then acting, we need to ensure that farmer start managing the soil in a way that soil health is not adversely affected...rather it should enhance. For example, need of the time is to educate farmers to judiciously use fertilizers in terms of dose, time of application, placement in the soil and interaction with irrigation. It looks easy but it is not. As Dr Abrol says as a community we need to ensure that it happens. If we are able to educate our farmers to manage soil properly, soil health will be taken care of automatically.
I think, the question that we all are trying to address, should be seen from the following angles, given that we all agree that soil health is critical to sustainable agriculture and evelopment.
1.Do we, as the scientific community, have clarity on priority science agenda that we shoud be pursuing to achieve goals of good soil health? How do we go about ?
2. With our present state of knowledge ( gathered nationally and globally ) , what can we be tellng the farmers so that they can make sound decisions with respect to maintaining and improving health of theier soil resources.
3 How best we, as scientific community, can we influence policy makers in respect of government programs aimed at ahhieving goals og sustainable agriculture.
Achieving goals of sustainable agricultue would call for action on many fronts, but I see that the Soil Scientists have to increasingly play a lead role unlike in the past !
Yes.
It is high time, all specialists of Natural Resource Management need to come together, work together, towards
1) Reducing or Minimizing soil erosion or soil loss
2) Deep soils are becoming shallow soils due to erosion,
3) No soil means no food production
Serious discussions, leading to common agenda to work across agro ecosystems of India, so that our Wealthy Natural Resource-Soil is Protected from Further Loss.
Dr. Bijay Singh and soil science family,
It is need of hour to look in to the soil health card critically. We find huge volume of work load on soil sampling, processing, historical data collection, data maintenance, sample transportation, soil analysis for 12 parameters, data records, interpretation, uploading data to website for soil health card preparation and crop specific nutrient recommendations. Considering above points, 4 to 6 hour required for each soil sample.It is cumbersome for analyze of all fields. Rather criticizing technicans, lab assistants and their incharge. We need to take a further a new step of interpolatation of representative data. We are of the opinion that soil health cards should be simplified and parameters for analysis be restricted for macro nutrients only. Further, analysis for a block with geo coordinates can reduce the cost and help in making general recommendation for the rainfed region.
Find my poster below:
Soil health cards – utility service and emerging need for revision in case of rainfed cotton· September 2017,· DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25937.63849
Dear Dr.Manikandan
I appreciate your valuable comments.I agree with you that analysing soils from all fields is cumbersome, laborious, time consuming, costly and practically not possible.There are statistical procedures in selecting fields, sampling and analysis.Selecting parameters dependd on area, production system,soil and nutritional problems. The more the samples, the more comprises on quality of analyses and the less reliability of the data generated.I shall go through your poster.
Yes, there is need of soil testing due to over usage of pesticides in the farm, changes of the climate (Natural calamity), and the farmer focus on the organic product etc. Farmer actually play major role to save the fertility of the soil.
If one is concerned with the soil health including soil and water contamination and produce quality,one needs diagnostic laboratories in place of soil testing laboratories to analyse soil ,water and produce quality. Farmers get their samples tested in those laboratories by paying some modest amount.Govt.need to provide incentives to farmers who fallow good agriculture practices to safeguard soil ,water and food quality in a particular area.
Bijay Sir,
Farmers need to be shown with yield levels in the village and where they stand. If they are getting low yields they have to be educated for managing soil, seed and pest / disease.
Soil health is the basic requirement for the success of an agriculture system in a given area. Better soil health proves propitious for high efficiency of most of the agricultural techniques related nutrient management, water management etc. No doubt, green revolution has made India self-sufficient in food grains but adoption of intensive agriculture system has put exhaustive pressure on the natural resources and soil health is one of them. So maintenance of better soil health for over all well being and sustainability has become need of the hour. It is apparent from the different schemes being launched by Govt of India like Soil Health Cards. Betterment in soil health can be achieved through exploration of various technological interventions like integrated nutrient management, resource conservation agriculture etc.
Tackling soil health issues at grass roots level requires a systematic, well planned approach. Firstly the problems and solutions need to be addressed by academicians and researchers working in the fields of soil ecology, agronomy, entomology etc., at a common platform, to evolve an effective coordinated approach. Secondly, extremely simplified protocols for farmers need to be formulated for different soil conditions, with clear instructions and precautions for safeguarding soil health. Thirdly, these have to be made accessible to extension workers in agriculture for effective communication to the farmers. The farmers should also be provided with an interactive platform to discuss and clarify soil health related issues.
Soil health is not a single term issue but it is umbrella term. If any one make initiative regarding through a society of soil biology in the country. It might be better for future of this science.
I am a man of soil biology I understand the pain of this issue.
Soil health is fundamental for soil flora /fauna and in turn governs the entire life on earth. Restoration of soil health is essential for existence of human being.
Many people think soil health restoration through addition of organic matter, we may need to think beyond
1. Soil health restoration should start with increasing water / moisture level in the soil for which comprehensive rain water management practices are essential.
2. Reducing evaporation from the soil through soil cover for which emphasis is required for agro-forestry approach
3. Conservation agriculture practices
4. Reducing heavy machinery / mechanization to the extent possible
5. Integrated farming approach with efficient recycling of resources etc
Soil is the basic and fundamental unit of life
I completely agree with Dr Singh. Conservation and maintenance of soil health and productivity is (must be) the key for addressing food/ nutrition security or hunger in this planet. Let us unite our efforts at regional and global levels for achieving that goal.
Soil health is deteriorating almost in every part of the globe and the reasons are well known to us. Keeping in view the importance of soil, World Soil Day is celebrated on December 5 throughout the world every year. The soils are becoming devoid of organic matter, nutrient deficiencies especially micro-nutrients are appearing, many beneficial microorganisms are disappearing in the soil. Thus, soil health is at its alarming situation. So, its the time to sustain soil health in good situation to avoid heavy losses in near future.
Dr. Singh, nice to comment your hypothesis. Latin America, where I live, is increasing the use of forest lands in Amazonian basin, for crop production. It is very dangerous because trees are considered to capture CO2 and these are very fragile ecosystems, specially soils. The trend must be similar in Asia and Africa, so we must get involved in some kind of net to face this problem.
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