How the soil score works
Where the numbers come from
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1
Labs test farm soil
1.3 crore tests
Under the Soil Health Card scheme, government labs test soil from farms. We use the tests from 2023-24 & 2024-25.
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2
Each result gets a band
The data says how many tests in each place fell in each band. It doesn't include the lab readings, so we can say how many fields are low in nitrogen, but not how low.
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3
We score every place
7/10
The bands are added up for each village, block, district and state, then turned into a score out of 10.
What each result means
The card checks 12 things. The bands use the standard Soil Health Card ratings.
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Nitrogen
Grows leaves and stems. Short soil gives pale, yellow leaves.
Healthy soil has 280 kg/ha or more.
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Phosphorus
Builds roots and helps the crop flower and fill grain.
Healthy soil has 10 kg/ha or more.
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Potassium
Fills grain and fruit, and helps crops stand drought and disease.
Healthy soil has 110 kg/ha or more.
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Organic carbon
Shows how much organic matter the soil has. It keeps soil loose, holds water and feeds the crop slowly.
Healthy soil has 0.5% or more.
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pH
How sour (acidic) or alkaline the soil is. It decides which nutrients roots can take up.
Most crops do best at pH 6.5 to 7.5.
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Salt
Salt in the soil, shown as EC on the card. Salt makes it hard for roots to drink.
Under 1 dS/m is fine. Above 4 harms most crops.
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Sulphur
Makes oil in oilseeds and protein in pulses.
Healthy soil has 10 ppm or more.
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Zinc
Needed for growth and healthy leaves. Rice and wheat often run short.
Healthy soil has 0.6 ppm or more.
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Iron
Keeps young leaves green.
Healthy soil has 4.5 ppm or more.
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Copper
Helps the crop set seed and resist disease.
Healthy soil has 0.2 ppm or more.
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Manganese
Helps leaves make food from sunlight.
Healthy soil has 2 ppm or more.
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Boron
Needed for flowers to set seed and fruit.
Healthy soil has 0.5 ppm or more.
Good, okay or poor
Each result is rated by how many soil tests here fell short:
Soil tests that fell short, out of 10
- Good fewer than 2 in 10 tests fell short.
- Okay 2 to 5 in 10 fell short.
- Poor more than half fell short.
Falling short means low (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, organic carbon), short (sulphur and the trace nutrients), acidic or alkaline (pH) or salty (salt). If you add your own soil card, your reading decides instead: a low, short, acidic, alkaline or salty reading is poor, anything else good.
The soil score for most crops
It is the share of all the checks that came out fine, out of 10. Some checks count more than others:
Count double
Count once
Count half
Main nutrients and salt count double because they matter most for yield, and salt is hard to fix. Iron, copper and manganese count half because they are rarely short.
What the score means
- Poor 0–5
- Okay 6–7
- Good 8–10
8 to 10 is good, 6 or 7 is okay, and 5 or less is poor.
Worked example: Khandwa (East Nimar)
8/10
Each bar is as long as the result counts; the filled part is the share of tests that came out fine.
- Nitrogen 0.32
- Phosphorus 1.44
- Potassium 1.96
- Organic carbon 1.93
- pH 1.00
- Salt 1.93
- Sulphur 0.88
- Zinc 0.67
- Iron 0.46
- Copper 0.50
- Manganese 0.50
- Boron 0.62
Points divided by the total that counts, times 10: 7.9, so 8 out of 10. (12.21 ÷ 15.5 × 10)
The soil score for a crop
A soil that's poor for most crops can be fine for some. Acidic soil suits tea, which wheat can't stand; barley copes with salt that ruins rice. So each crop gets its own score from the same soil tests, judged against what that crop needs:
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pH
pH, against the crop's own pH range from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) crop database. A band counts fully where its typical pH is in the crop's best range, and half where the crop only tolerates it. The data's neutral band is wide, about pH 6 to 8, so it counts fully for any crop whose best range reaches into it.
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Salt, against how much salt the crop takes, from the same database. Salty soil counts fully for crops that take a lot of salt, half for those that take some, and not at all for the rest.
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Nutrients, weighted by how much the crop depends on them. Crops that need rich soil (cabbage, mustard, tea) feel shortages of the main nutrients 1.4 times as much; crops that grow on poor soil (bajra, moth bean) 0.6 times.
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Specific needs, from standard Indian crop guidance: pulses, groundnut and other legumes make their own nitrogen, so low nitrogen counts much less for them. Oilseeds, onion and garlic need sulphur; rice, wheat and maize suffer from low zinc; cabbage-family crops, sunflower, groundnut, cotton and papaya need boron; citrus needs zinc and iron; banana, potato and coconut need a lot of potassium. These count up to twice as much.
pH and salt count three times as much as a main nutrient, because you can't easily change them. A nutrient can be added, so a shortage lowers the score less and the plan says what to add. A shortage never rules a crop out: only pH or salt can, and for pH only when your own soil card shows it.
What the scores can't tell you
- Your own field. The score says what soil around you tends to be like. Get your soil tested and add your card for a score of your own field.
- Exact pH. The data only names pH bands. Soils known to be alkaline, like the black soils of central India, mostly come out "neutral", so its neutral band is wide (about pH 6 to 8) and "acidic" and "alkaline" mean the extremes. We read them as about pH 5.5 and 8.5, and never rule a crop out on the area's pH alone.
- Exact doses. Fixes are the usual advice. Your Soil Health Card or nearest Krishi Vigyan Kendra gives the dose for your field.
- Soil type, depth and drainage. The tests don't cover them, and they matter for many crops.