Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurates the National Conference on Soil Health Management for Sustainable Farming in New Delhi

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On the occasion of the World Soil Day, Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar inaugurated the National Conference on Soil Health Management for Sustainable Farming on 5 December 2022 in New Delhi. Every year 5 December is observed as World Soil Day.

The Conference was organized by the NITI Aayog in collaboration with GIZ affiliated to the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany.

In the conference, Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Suman Berry, CEO Parameswaran Iyer were also present.

Speaking on the occasion, the Union minister said that due to chemical farming and other reasons, soil fertility is getting eroded and to meet this serious challenge the government is promoting natural farming. 

He said that the Central government has launched the National Mission on Natural Farming as a separate scheme with an expenditure of Rs 1,584 crore. 

An additional area of 4.78 lakh hectares has been brought under natural farming in 17 states.

Under the Namami Gange programme, the project of natural farming is going on along the banks of the Ganges.

To promote soil management the government has issued more than 22 crore Soil Health Cards to the farmers. Soil Health gives information to farmers about the health of the soil they are using for cultivation of crops. It tells them which types of crops are suited for their soil. It was launched in February 2015.