Kathmandu, March 15 The government is preparing to provide soil health cards to farmers to test the quality of soil, ascertain types of crops that could give maximum yields in that soil condition and recommend fertiliser requirement for different types of soil. Once the cards are issued, farmers will have to test the quality of soil every year, Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Development Chakra Pani Khanal told the Agriculture, Cooperative and Natural Resources Committee of the House of Representatives today. Based on the result, farmers will be given advice on types of crops that could be grown on such farmlands and the amount of chemical fertilisers that farmers need to sprinkle on their fields to improve productivity. “We have already bought some mobile vans to conduct soil tests. We are planning to start testing the quality of the soil soon,” Agriculture Secretary Yubak Dhoj GC said. The government has soil test laboratories in five locations of the country, but they are not functioning properly due to lack of resources. A few years ago, India had provided a mobile soil test laboratory to Nepal. “India has promised to provide more mobile soil test laboratories, but we have not received them,” said GC. Earlier, the governments of the two countries had also agreed to work together in this area to raise crop productivity. “We have been raising this issue in Nepal-India Joint Agriculture Working Group meetings, but have not been able to work in a coordinated manner,” said GC. India has been quite successful in implementing soil health card scheme, which was launched in 2015. Under the scheme, farmers are given “crop-wise recommendations on nutrients and fertilisers to improve productivity”. “Once such cards are issued here, it will be mandatory for farmers to test the quality of soil every year and renew the soil health cards every year,” said GC. Once farmers receive soil health cards, the government will provide agricultural loans at subsidised rates to farmers to gradually make the country self-sufficient in agricultural products. The government is planning to set a maximum of 12 per cent interest on loans disbursed through the use of soil health cards. “Of this interest, seven per cent will be borne by the government and the remaining five per cent will have to be paid by farmers,” Minister Khanal said. Banks and financial institutions, according to the government, must provide these loans under the deprived sector lending scheme. Banking institutions must disburse five per cent of the total credit to the deprived sector.