India will run a nationwide soil protection campaign, the "Khet Bachao Abhiyan", from 22 October to 30 November, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced at the National Agriculture Conference for the Rabi Campaign 2026, Rural Voice reports. The campaign will promote balanced fertiliser use based on Soil Health Cards and aim to protect soil fertility and beneficial insects.
Chouhan handed sanction letters worth more than Rs 1,200 crore to ten states under the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, led by West Bengal (Rs 290 crore), Haryana (Rs 198 crore) and Chhattisgarh (Rs 181 crore). He said agricultural growth had risen from 3% in 2015 to 4.5%, and that rabi foodgrain output grew by 205 lakh tonnes between 2023-24 and 2025-26.
He called for a "Team Agriculture" approach across the Centre and states, with monthly virtual reviews between the two, state teams linking ministers, universities, research institutes, Krishi Vigyan Kendras and farmer producer organisations, and monthly district meetings of officials, scientists, bankers and farmers. A fixed calendar will set district and state pre-season meetings on 10 and 17 May for kharif and 10 and 17 September for rabi.
For this rabi season, states were told to base crop and seed advice on soil moisture and water availability, strengthen pest and disease protection, cover all eligible farmers with Kisan Credit Cards and run transparent crop-cutting experiments for crop insurance. The minister urged more pulses in the rice fallows of eastern India, in Jharkhand, Bihar, Odisha and West Bengal, after the paddy harvest.
Chouhan said seed and fertiliser supplies were adequate, told states to take strict legal action against fake fertilisers, spurious seeds and substandard pesticides, and called for an end to the forced tagging of other products with farm inputs. He also urged natural farming, integrated farming systems and crop diversification.
Photo: Yann / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Source: Rural Voice
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