The government proposal to make agri-cooperative NAFED a nodal center for the distribution of Soil Health Card is making the rounds in the cooperative circle for the past 3-4 months, complained govt nominee Ashok Thakur.
“It is a God send which neither the MD nor the Chairman is realizing”, said Thakur elaborating on the benefits that would accrue to Nafed should it accept the proposal.
It is a Rs 3000 crore business where Nafed is supposed to distribute the soil health card machines to states. Nafed would distribute roughly one lakh machines and run the nodal center.
According to Thakur, there is 100% subsidy on the machines and Nafed has to lose nothing. Even otherwise the machine is priced low as ICAR and a firm named Nagarjuna are jointly making this machine.
Under the Soil Health Card (SHC) Scheme, the government of India provides assistance to the state Governments to issue SHCs to all farmers in the country.
Under the scheme about 2.53 crore samples will be collected and tested to generate 14 crore SHCs for farmers once in a cycle of 3 years. The scheme has been approved with a total outlay of Rs. 568.54 crore with the government of India and the states’ ratio being 50:50.