ICFRE-RFRI (Jorhat) and Assam State Environment and Forest Department released FSHCs for all 33 territorial forest divisions of Assam.
Soil Health Card Scheme:
- Launched by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare on December 5, 2015.
- Provides a printed report detailing the nutrient status of the soil in farm holdings.
- Key Nutrients Monitored: SHC includes analysis of 12 soil nutrients:
- pH: Soil acidity or alkalinity
- Electrical Conductivity (EC): Measures salinity
- Organic Carbon (OC): Soil organic matter content
- Nitrogen (N): Essential for plant growth
- Phosphorus (P): Important for root development
- Potassium (K): Vital for plant health and growth
- Sulphur (S): Helps in protein synthesis
- Zinc (Zn): Required for enzyme function
- Boron (B): Important for cell wall synthesis
- Iron (Fe): Crucial for photosynthesis
- Manganese (Mn): Involved in enzyme activation
- Copper (Cu): Essential for various metabolic processes
Significance: Helps farmers understand soil health and makes recommendations for improving soil fertility, thereby enhancing crop productivity.
Forest Soil Health Cards (FSHC):
- FSHCs aim to address gaps in scientific data regarding forest soil health in Assam and recommend improvements for soil fertility in degraded/low-productive forest areas.
- Purpose and Importance:
- Developed to improve soil fertility and productivity, helping in the restoration of degraded forests in Assam.
- FSHCs support India’s climate goals set during the 2015 UNFCCC Paris conference, aiming for an additional carbon sink of 2.5–3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through afforestation by 2030.
ICFRE’s Role:
- ICFRE-RFRI leads the FSHC initiative for North East India.
- The initiative is part of the All India Coordinated Research Project funded by the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC), implemented by ICFRE.
Project Overview:
- The project involves developing FSHCs for 788 forest divisions across India, covering 12 key soil fertility parameters.
- Aimed at enhancing soil health management and contributing to India’s climate commitments.
Significance:
- The initiative bridges the gap in soil health monitoring for forests, complementing the Ministry of Agriculture’s Soil Health Card Scheme for agricultural soils.
- Enhances forest soil health management, contributing to both environmental sustainability and India’s climate action goals.
