LIMITATIONS OF THE RANGES IN FUNCTION OF HAVING THE ABILITY TO RECOGNIZED OR UNDERSTOOD SOIL TESTING LABORATORIES

Despite of the proven advantages of the soil testing service for farmers, the service is still suffering on financial, management as well as technical fronts. Receipt of large numbers of samples by each of the soil testing laboratories makes it difficult for them to analyze and send the reports in time to the farmers in question. This may be one of the reasons for lack of required success in this programme, as time taken between collection of samples and receipt of recommendations by the farmers is too long. However, it can be stated that the huge network of soil testing laboratories has not yet rendered the services of a watchdog for the monitoring of the soil health under major cropping systems.
 
There is a need in this regard to organize soil testing laboratories at block level so that the farmers will no longer have to travel far to get the soil tested and wait endlessly to get the results and recommendations.  Keeping this in view, a scheme is formulated to serve as guide to aspiring individuals and institutions in establishing a static soil testing laboratory offering services of soil as well as water testing, consultancy on problems like soil reclamation and so on.

Objectives

• The undertake soil testing and testing of irrigation water for quality
• The provision of recommendation on fertilizer application including bio-fertilizers
• The provision of guidance on soil reclamation as well as related areas

The required need for new soil testing laboratories at block level

The annual installed analyzing capacity of soil samples at soil testing laboratories has also grown to 8.0 million samples with annual growth rate of 11% during the last two decades. The analyzing capacity per 1000 ha of gross cultivated area has more than doubled during the last twenty years from twenty six in some decades ago. There is also a wide disparity in analyzing capacity in terms of the number of samples per soil testing laboratories across the regions. The annual analyzing capacity per soil testing laboratories has decreased in the nineties in all the regions which may be due to the fact that the new soil testing laboratories being set up are either mobile vans or are of less analyzing capacity. In all the regions, potential of soil testing laboratories are not efficiently utilized and their utilization efficiency varies from 64% in regions to as low as 16%. The utilization efficiency of soil testing laboratories has drastically reduced in all the regions. It has been reduced by more than 50% in most regions which is followed by 27% in most region and about 11% both in other regions during the last ten years resulting in a net reduction of 20% at all level. Since challenges ahead are to encourage precise and balanced fertilization in irrigated areas and ensure adequate fertilization in other area, especially in dry land regions, there is a great need for maintaining as well as improving soil fertility, correcting inherent soil nutrient deficiency and restoring productivity of the land that has been degraded by exploitative activities in the past. It also highlights that the need for intensive soil tests for developing specific nutrient management strategies at more desegregated level is enormous in all the regions. It reveals that the creation or establishment of new soil testing laboratories in the region at each block level is essential to cater to the needs of the farming community in question.

However, there is enormous scope for the project, which is lack of awareness among farmers on the importance of soil test based fertilizer use limit the commercial scope. A laboratory with a capacity to test 8000 samples per year will be enough and adequate to cater to a few villages in one block. The scientists who are in charge of the unit could also engage in providing guidance in the areas of land reclamation, compost making, use of bio-fertilizer and so on. 

Requirements of aim

Equipment

The equipments required for suggested laboratory are enormous.  These equipments can be used for finding out the pH of the soil, electrical conductivity, available Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Organic Carbon, available sulphur and calcareousness of soil and so on.

Transport

Since the Laboratory is static, there is need for transport to initially canvass for the work and collection of samples.  As the awareness about the facility builds up in the villages, farmers would come to the laboratory with the soil samples for testing. The trainees of vocational course may be deputed and their services may as well be utilized for the collection of representative soil samples as well as transfer of them to the nearest laboratory station.

Capacity of the Laboratory

In its capacity, it is possible to test 10000 -14000 samples in a year, the installed capacity is considered at a moderate level of 8000 samples annually and the capacity utilization is then considered at 35%, 50%, 75%, and 80% in the first three years and fourth year onwards in that order of capacity.

Raw Material

The raw materials which are needed or required for this aim are glass ware and chemicals which are available with the leading scientific equipment manufacturers and chemical suppliers. 

Manpower

In the requirement of manpower, one post graduate in agriculture with soil science specialization can man the laboratory which can then be supported by two semi-skilled persons for collection of samples, preparation of samples and other laboratory or field related works.