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Soil Health Card Scheme
Claim
Accurate
Delivery
Delivered
Both halves of this promise were built. The Soil Health Card scheme launched in 2014-15 and, the Ministry of Agriculture told Parliament on 11 August 2026, 26.26 crore cards have been issued since. The testing infrastructure behind them runs to 8,313 laboratories, of which 168 are the mobile labs the manifesto specifically named, alongside 1,267 static, 6,197 mini and 681 village-level labs. What the ministry's answer does not establish is the second half of the sentence — whether the assessments changed what farmers plant or how they fertilise. Its evidence on that is activity rather than outcome: 7.17 lakh demonstrations, 1,30,627 training programmes and 70,002 trained Krishi Sakhis.
“Introduce soil assessment based crop planning and setting up mobile soil testing labs.”No CAG performance audit published
No CAG performance audit covering this scheme has been published. The absence of an audit is not evidence that the claim is either accurate or inaccurate.
No CAG performance audit of the Soil Health Card scheme has been tabled. The figures here are the implementing ministry's own, given to Parliament on 11 August 2026.
No audit period to plot — no CAG performance audit covering this scheme has been published.
26.26 crore Soil Health Cards issued since 2014-15; 8,313 soil testing laboratories including 168 mobile labs
In the three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26, 2.42 crore soil tests were conducted and 2.42 crore cards issued — an average of about 81 lakh a year against roughly 14 crore agricultural holdings, so a card does not reach most farmers in any given cycle.
Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3822, Review of Soil Health Card Issuance — answer by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
The 2014 manifesto's agriculture list contains a one-line commitment that is unusually specific about the instrument: "Introduce soil assessment based crop planning and setting up mobile soil testing labs."
The instrument was built. The Soil Health Card scheme began in 2014-15, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare told the Lok Sabha on 11 August 2026 that "26.26 crore Soil Health Cards (SHCs) have been generated/issued to farmers in the country under the Soil Health & Fertility Scheme since inception of the scheme i.e. 2014-15 till date."
The laboratory network behind the cards is also real, and it includes the specific thing the manifesto named. "Total 8313 Soil Testing Labs (1267 Static Soil Testing Labs, 168 Mobile Soil Testing Labs, 6197 Mini Soil Testing Labs and 681 Village Level Soil Testing Labs) have been established under the scheme." Mobile labs are the smallest category, but they exist and they were promised by name.
Two qualifications belong in the record, and neither of them contradicts the promise.
The first is throughput. In the three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26, "2.42 crore soil testing have been conducted and 2.42 crore SHCs have been generated/issued" — roughly 81 lakh cards a year, against an agricultural holdings base of about 14 crore. The cumulative 26.26 crore figure counts cards issued over twelve years, and soil changes; a farmer who received a card in 2016 and none since does not have a current assessment. The promise did not say every farmer, every cycle, so this is context rather than a shortfall.
The second is the part of the sentence that says "crop planning". Issuing a card is measurable; changing what is planted or how much urea is applied is the point of it. The ministry's evidence here is effort rather than effect: "around 7.17 Lakh demonstrations, 130627 farmer's training programmes and 7,425 farmer's mela have been organized to enable farmers to follow recommendations in the SHC", plus 70,002 Krishi Sakhis trained to help farmers use them, and a school soil health programme running since 2023-24. No estimate of adoption or of fertiliser use changed is given, and none has been published elsewhere that we hold.
There is no CAG performance audit of this scheme, so every figure above comes from the ministry that runs it and has not been independently verified. On the promise as written — introduce soil assessment based crop planning, set up mobile soil testing labs — the cards, the labs and the mobile labs all exist at national scale. Our verdict is accurate.
BJP Election Manifesto 2014 — Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat
“Our Pledge — Ek Bharat - Shreshtha Bharat: Vibrant and Participatory Democracy; Empowered and Inspired People; Inclusive and Sustainable Development; Quality life in Villages and Cities; Basic Amenities to All; Flourishing Agriculture; Productive Youth; Involved Women; Robust physical and social Infrastructure; Innovative and Technologically driven Society; Globally competitive Economy; Brand India built on Quality; Strong, Effective and Futuristic Institutions; Open, Transparent and Systems-based Government; Pro-active, Pro-people Good Governance.”
Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3822, Review of Soil Health Card Issuance — answer by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare
“26.26 crore Soil Health Cards (SHCs) have been generated/issued to farmers in the country under the Soil Health & Fertility Scheme since inception of the scheme i.e. 2014-15 till date… Total 8313 Soil Testing Labs (1267 Static Soil Testing Labs, 168 Mobile Soil Testing Labs, 6197 Mini Soil Testing Labs and 681 Village Level Soil Testing Labs) have been established under the scheme. During the last three years from 2023-24 to 2025-26, 2.42 crore soil testing have been conducted and 2.42 crore SHCs have been generated/issued to farmers including small & marginal farmers in the country… around 7.17 Lakh demonstrations, 130627 farmer's training programmes and 7,425 farmer's mela have been organized… 70,002 Krishi Sakhis have been trained to support farmers in using SHCs.”