Soil Health Cards, which are used to determine the fertility of soil, is being distributed to all farmers in the district, and they are being told to avail the facility to improve soil health and crop prospects, said District Collect TN Hariharan.

In a press release issued here, the collector said that under the Soil Health Card scheme, which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 and implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmesr Welfare, welfare grid sampling of soil is taken with GPS coordinates to help farmers improve soil health.

Soil Health cards, could help farmers in crop selection as per the soil type, reducing chemical fertiliser inputs, improving the health of the soil by opting for organic manure, microbes and vermiculture practices.

Soil fertility has come down to the present 0.45 per cent from 1.25 per cent in the 1980s all over India and urgent measures are to be adopted to improve it.