Kolkata, June 20 (IANS) Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh on Monday said West Bengal has been slow in issuing soil health cards to farmers with only two percent of them receiving the benefit.
"Aimed at reducing the cost of farming, the centre targets to provide soil health card to 14 crore farmers in the country by March 2017. But in Bengal, only about two percent of 72 lakh farmers have got it," Singh told media persons here.
The union minister who during the day reviewed the state's agriculture status, said the Mamata Banerjee government has assured of speeding up the process to cover all the 72 lakh farmers by March 2017.
"We had given a total of Rs 8 crore for 2014-15 and 2015-16 and allocated Rs 8 crore in 2016-17 for soil health management including strengthening of 12 new laboratories and 10 old laboratories.
"And for soil health card, we had given Rs 6 crore to the state in 2014-15 and 2015-16 and allocated Rs 15 crore in 016-17," he added.
