Staff crunch dampens Modi’s dream for soil health card to farmers

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, May 28

The soil testing division of the state Agriculture Department is facing a severe staff crunch for several years. Besides, the state is facing serious soil and water health problems, as most of the zones have been declared black zones.

Experts say staff shortage in this division may hit Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of providing soil health cards to farmers, as there are very few technicians to collect, analysis and prepare soil health reports in the state.

An official said the department had a target to issue 7.68 lakh soil health cards to farmers in three years, which would cover 1,61 lakh households of the state.

“The functioning of the department can be gauged from the fact that 78 out of 92 sanctioned posts of junior scientific assistant (JSA) at 34 soil testing labs of the state have been lying vacant,” said department sources.

Similarly, 105 out of 126 sanctioned posts of lab attendants are lying vacant for several years. Apart from this, 19 out of 25 posts of soil testing officers are vacant in the state.

There are three mobile vans in the state for conducting soil test, which were started to test samples at farmers’ doorsteps. These vans are still parked in the office due to lack of drivers.

Admitting staff crunch, Anil Kumar Rana, Additional Director Soil and Water Management, told The Tribune, “The department had conducted interviews for recruitment in 2013, but the process was not completed. Now, we are initiating recruitment in the department on outsourcing basis.”

“We are in touch with the National Co-operative Consumer Form for the recruitment of JSA on the outsourcing basis. They will meet us on May 29, otherwise they would recruit youths for analysing the soil in the state,” he said.