AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE OF FARMERS TOWARDS SOIL HEALTH CARD SCHEME IN TAMIL NADU

S.S. ARCHANA¹, R. BALASUBRAMANIAN²*
¹Department of Agricultural Economics, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
²Agricultural College and Research Institute, Thiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 606753, Tamil Nadu, India
* Corresponding Author : rubalu@gmail.com

Received : 02-05-2019     Accepted : 12-05-2019     Published : 15-05-2019
Volume : 11     Issue : 9       Pages : 8405 - 8407
Int J Agr Sci 11.9 (2019):8405-8407

Keywords : Soil Health Card, Awareness, Knowledge, Attitude
Conflict of Interest : None declared
Acknowledgements/Funding : Authors are thankful to Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, 641003, Tamil Nadu, India
Author Contribution : All authors equally contributed

The government of India is investing in a large-scale, expensive program of individualized soil testing and customized fertilizer recommendations, with the hope that scientific information will lead farmers to optimize the fertilizer mix. The Soil Health Card is a printed report that a farmer will be handed over for each of his holdings. It will indicate the fertilizer recommendations and the soil amendments required for each farm. It shows optimum combinations of nutrients required for each crop along with the details of various parameters of the soil being tested. The present study was undertaken in Dharmapuri and Krishnagiri Districts of Tamil Nadu to analyse the level of awareness and knowledge of the farmers regarding the Soil Health Card scheme. The primary data for the study at micro level was collected by survey method adopting personal interview of the selected respondents with the help of well-structured and pre-tested questionnaire. It is found that that nearly 3/4th of the sample respondents are aware of this scheme and more than 50 percent of the farmers have medium level of knowledge regarding the utility and importance of this scheme. The information was disseminated mostly through neighbours and friends. It is also found that maximum number of farmers in both the districts of Tamil Nadu have moderately favorable attitude towards this scheme. Knowledge level was found to be the highly significant factor influencing the adoption of the soil test based recommendations by the farmers.

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