Awareness Regarding Soil Health Card and Obstacles in Adoption of its Recommendations in the Karaikal District of Puducherry U.T. in India

Aims: To study the awareness regarding Soil Health Card and constraints encountered in adoption of Soil Health card Recommendations and suggestions in Karaikal district of Puducherry U.T.

Study Design: Purposive random sampling.

Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in the Karaikal district of Puducherry U.T. and the survey was conducted during September 2021 and October 2021.

Methodology: The random sampling of 120 respondents from Karaikal district who had soil health cards. Among the two Taluks (Karaikal and Thirunallar), total six Firkas were selected purposively and 20 farmers from each Firkas were selected through a random sampling technique. From the 120 sample respondents, information regarding the study was collected with a structured interview schedule. Percentage and distribution were employed to know about the socio-economic profile of respondents and their awareness level regarding the Soil Health card another tool used is Garrett ranking technique to rank constraints faced by the respondents.

Results: It was discovered that farmers were aware of the Soil health card suggests conservative measures for sustainable soil health and it increases yield, which also reduces additional costs incurred for fertilizer purchases by giving fertilizer recommendations for the particular field, etc. Garret ranking analysis revealed that the major constraint encountered in the adoption of soil health card recommendations is that the information on Soil Health Card is not in the local language followed by recommendations are not calculated based on farmers' land holdings, inaccessibility of micro-nutrient fertilizer in the market, etc.

Conclusion: To overcome these constraints Farmer's training on the use of a Soil Health Card by calculating a recommended dose of fertilizers and the information on the Soil Health Card should be in the local language is recommended.