DA to start National Soil Health Program

President Duterte has given the Department of Agriculture (DA) the go signal to start the National Soil Health Program (NSHP), which aims to revitalize the country’s soil and sustainably increase crop production given the consistent increase in food prices worldwide.

The program will receive a funding of ₱523.27 million and will run from this year until 2023. It will institutionalize the agency’s national soil monitoring and rejuvenation program, establish modern mobile soil laboratories to monitor soil health, improve soil analysis for macro and micronutrients, and develop manuals to improve the indicators used to check soil health. Soil test kits will also be distributed to farmers.

“As soil is the foundation of agriculture, we must therefore protect, preserve and nurture it to sustainably produce adequate, affordable, and nutritious food for all Filipinos. With the NHSP, we now have a science-based framework to rejuvenate our sick soils that will subsequently lead to increased crop harvests and farmers’ income,” ” said Agriculture Secretary William Dar.

The NHSP is patterned after the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics’ (ICRISAT) own soil rejuvenation program, “Bhoochetana,” which ran from 2009 and 2012. Dar oversaw this program during his stint as ICRISAT’s director-general from 2000 to 2014.

Through Bhoochetana, farmers in India were able to increase their crop yields by 23% through the adoption of soil test-based nutrient management recommendations, the use of quality seeds, and soil and water conservation measures.

SOURCE: Inquirer