Since its Inception, ICAR sponsored All India Coordinated Research Project on Soil Test Crop Response strive for balance between crop productivity, farmers’ profitability, soil sustainability and igher nutrient response ratio of applied plant nutrients. What defines us is our commitment for offering diligent mix of crop productivity and soil sustainability which endeavours to give farmers thebest of both world and opportunity for higher return based on resource endowment capacity.To optimise plant nutrient application through fertiliser prescription equations, it was thought to leverage the strength and resources of different stakeholders such as Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare and National Informatics Centre and culminated in the integration of STCR fertiliser prescription equation in the national web portal of soil health card scheme. STCR was developed for irrigated condition. However, keeping in view of the fact that the per capitawater availability is declining with time and so is the case for water allocation to agriculture, STCR has already taken steps in line with “Reform, Perform and Transform” call from the Government to address this issue and the first STCR prescription equations under drip fertigation has been developed. We are further reinforcing our activity in this line for hi-value crops. The dedicated STCR team spread in 25 centres covering diverse soil and agro-ecologocal regions of India is always ready to go extra mile, be it the preparation of soil health card, propagating Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, implementing Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav program or celebrating World Soil Day and sensitizing masses about the importance of soil health. Only thorugh this dedicated team, it was possible to reach the unreach and serve the unserved thorugh Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) programme in some of the remotest corners like Purani Pod of BR Hills, Chamrajnagar district, Karnataka; Ngairangbam village of Imphal West district, Manipur; Balibandh village of Keonjhor district, Odisha; Irularpathi tribal hamlet of Kandiyur village, Coimbatore district, Tamil Nadu. In recent years, STCR has developed hitherto untouched nutrient, sulphur. Developed GPS and GIS based soil fertility maps of primary, secondary and micronutrients for 173 districts of India and develop nutrient Plan based on these maps. Use of soil Spectroscopy especially mid infrared Spectroscopy in STCR studies. To contribute in Government mission of Digital India STCR launched an app for Maharashtra which is bilingual both in Marathi and English As part of skill India mission of the Government, STCR has organised large number of trainings for State Soil Test Laboratory personnel and farmers. Also organised STCR-Industry interface on customized fertilisers and decision support system. However, we understand that there is no scope for complacency and I would like to assure all thestakeholders that team STCR will strive hard to ‘explore new horizon’ in future too.
