Utilization of soil health card by the farmers of Thrissur district

Abstract

Injudicious and hazardous use of chemical fertilizer in agriculture is a matter of concern in recent times. In order to avoid deterioration of soil in the long run and visualizing the importance of balanced nutrition in crop production, Government of India launched the soil health (SHC) programme in 2015. The Soil Health Card provides appropriate guidance to the farmers for the efficient use of fertilizer for crops based on soil health analysis. The SHC is a printed document, which contains data on soil test based chemical analysis to describe soil health in terms of its nutrient availability and its physical and chemical properties. The study was carried out in Thrissur district as it had the maximum number of SHC scheme beneficiaries in the State. A total of 180 respondents from the district formed the sample which constituted 150 farmers and 30 scheme implementing officers. Status of SHC use among farmers revealed the presence of four categories of SHC users viz. participant SHC scheme users, participant SHC scheme non-users, paid SHC users and non-participant non-users. Analysis of the socio-economic variables between the different categories of users and non-users of farmers revealed that the variables, farming experience, exposure to training and irrigation facility showed significant difference among the respondents at 0.05 and 0.01 levels with p values 0.040, 0.016 and 0.001 respectively. With regard to awareness on SHC, Paid SHC users had an overall awareness score of 461.52. On all selected awareness domains they had uniformly high scores except on general information on SHC scheme wherein the score was only 78.00 per cent. Regarding the spread of SHC in Thrisssur district, Chavakkad was the only block that covered more than 50 per cent of farmers. Extent of adoption measured using adoption index, and the results indicated that 50 per cent of the participant SHC scheme users were of medium adoption category, followed by 34 per cent of low adopters and only 16 per cent belonged to the high adoption category. However, in XXXII the case of paid soil test users, it could be inferred that majority of the farmers (60 per cent), came under high adoption category, followed by 33 per cent under medium level of adoption and only 7 per cent belonged to low adoption category. Correlation between the independent variables and adoption of SHC recommendations by participant SHC scheme users and paid SHC users revealed that, irrigation facility and farming experience showed positively significant correlation with adoption at 0.05 level for both the categories. It is also important to find that when scientific orientation recorded positive and significant relation with adoption at 0.01 level for both participant SHC scheme users and paid SHC users, training and education showed significant relation only for the paid SHC users at 0.01 and 0.05 levels of significance respectively. When 90 per cent of the paid SHC users showed favourable perception regarding the reliability of SHCs, only 40 per cent of the participant SHC scheme users displayed a favourable utility perception on the domain. With regard to the quantity of fertilizers (Urea, SSP, MOP) applied, and micronutrient use, there is significant difference between users and non-users with p values 0.44 and 0.017 respectively. Results of binary logistic regression of SHC users and non-users with socioeconomic variables and yield taken as independent variables revealed that a change in the level of education, farming experience, irrigation or yield could bring a corresponding chance of 64, 30, 31 and 67 per cent respectively for a non-user to become a user of SHC results. Majority of farmers (68 per cent) stated that the time gap between soil collection and distribution of cards was too long. The major constraint stated by officers was unavailability of field staffs for taking samples (68.23 per cent). Though the services were free under the scheme, farmers face a lot of impediments in getting full benefits of the scheme. It is suggested that the policy makers should conduct suitable awareness programs and trainings to promote the usage of soil health cards. Follow-up by extension agency, timely reporting of soil test results to farmers is crucial in whole programme. Effective utilization of the scheme also needs the presence of field level experts to clear doubts of farmers at the time of their need in a scientific way.