EXTENT OF ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED FERTILIZER MANAGEMENT UNDER SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME IN BALDIRAI BLOCK OF SULTANPUR DISTRICT

Abstract

Injudicious and haphazard use of chemical fertilizer in agriculture is a
matter of concern in recent times. To avoid deterioration of soil in long run and visualizing
the importance of balance nutrient in crop production. The soil health card (SHC) provides
soil health data to get appropriate guidance to the farmers for the efficient use of fertilizer
to cultivate crops based on soil health analysis. The SHC is a simple document, which
contains useful data on soil based on chemical analysis of the soil to describe soil health in
terms of its nutrient availability and its physical and chemical properties. The soil health
card is made available online also for the farmers. To understand the feelings of the
farmers against this system, there is an urgent need to study the degree of positive or
negative disposition associated with farmer towards the usefulness and application of soil
health card. Thus the present study on farmers’ perception regarding soil health card was
undertaken. The study was conducted in Sultanpur district with 120 soil health card
holders. The findings revealed that majority of the farmers were having knowledge and
understanding about the utility of soil health card. The findings further reveals that
maximum number of soil health card holders were having favorable attitude towards soil
health card followed by less favorable and most favorable attitude towards soil health card.
Among constraints, received soil health card after crop harvest was the major constraint
faced by majority of the respondents.