93 soil testing labs established in Nagaland so far

DIMAPUR — Nagaland has established a total of 93 soil testing laboratories so far, out of which 16 were static laboratories, three mobile laboratories, and 74 village-level laboratories implemented under the National Project on Soil Health and Fertility of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture.

Arjun Munda, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, informed the Lok Sabha of this in a written reply on December 19.

Since 2014–15, the Government of India has been implementing Soil Health Management and Soil Health Card Schemes as part of the National Project on Soil Health and Fertility of the National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture.

So far, a total of 23.58 crore soil health cards have been distributed to farmers, and 93,781 farmer trainings, 6.45 lakh demonstrations, and 7,425 farmer’s melas and campaigns have been organised across the country.

A total of 8,272 soil testing labs have been established across the country under the Soil Health Management and Soil Health Card Schemes (1,068 static soil testing labs, 163 mobile soil testing labs, 6,376 mini soil testing labs, and 665 village-level soil testing labs).

In terms of the state-wise establishment of soil testing laboratories in the Northeast, Assam takes the lead with a total of 240 laboratories. Among these, 26 are static laboratories, and 214 are mini laboratories.

Following closely is Tripura with 119 soil testing laboratories, Nagaland with 93, Arunachal Pradesh with 20, and both Sikkim and Manipur with 17 each. Meghalaya has 13 soil testing laboratories, and Mizoram has 6.