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<p>Sustaining and enhancing soil fertility is essential to improve crop yields. Agricultural extension services and field demonstrations are vital in achieving these goals through the dissemination of knowledge about soil health management. This research examines the impact of Soil Health Cards (SHCs) on fertilizer application and their subsequent influence on rice yields. In our sample, while farmers exhibit a both positive perception of SHCs and strong interest in obtaining them, only 41% of recipients actually follow the recommended practices. The key determinants of the farmer’s compliance include education up to the 10th grade, gender, and the distance from input markets. The study also evaluates the effects of SHCs and training interventions on fertilizer usage and the likelihood of adopting customized fertilizer applications. Using an instrumental variable approach and a difference-in-differences (DID) estimation method, our results indicate that the intervention significantly increases rice yields through the optimal application of soil nutrients. While the DID method shows that SHCs alone have no impact on crop yields, combining SHCs with agricultural extension training leads to a substantial increase of up to 31–60% in rice yields for the intervention group as compared to the control group’s average yield. Our findings suggest that farmers would benefit from receiving agricultural extension training alongside SHCs.</p>

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Farmers' response to soil health card recommendations: input usage and crop yield

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年10月1日

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  • Apsara Karki Nepal,
  • Dyutiman Choudhary,
  • Naba Raj Pandit

摘要

Sustaining and enhancing soil fertility is essential to improve crop yields. Agricultural extension services and field demonstrations are vital in achieving these goals through the dissemination of knowledge about soil health management. This research examines the impact of Soil Health Cards (SHCs) on fertilizer application and their subsequent influence on rice yields. In our sample, while farmers exhibit a both positive perception of SHCs and strong interest in obtaining them, only 41% of recipients actually follow the recommended practices. The key determinants of the farmer’s compliance include education up to the 10th grade, gender, and the distance from input markets. The study also evaluates the effects of SHCs and training interventions on fertilizer usage and the likelihood of adopting customized fertilizer applications. Using an instrumental variable approach and a difference-in-differences (DID) estimation method, our results indicate that the intervention significantly increases rice yields through the optimal application of soil nutrients. While the DID method shows that SHCs alone have no impact on crop yields, combining SHCs with agricultural extension training leads to a substantial increase of up to 31–60% in rice yields for the intervention group as compared to the control group’s average yield. Our findings suggest that farmers would benefit from receiving agricultural extension training alongside SHCs.