In India the soil health cards are being issued to farmers since last 6 years. However, it is not possible to have soil health cards for each and every field till today. We know that whenever we have a bumper crop of sorghum, maize, rice, wheat etc. the soil nutrient status changes after every crop season. Under such situation it is required to measure the soil nutrient status after every crop season. Therefore, we need to have a fast and accurate measurement system which can provide the soil health card to the farmers in his field itself so that he can plan for fertilizer application rate just before the crop sowing season. Under present laboratory analysis method it takes months to get the soil health card and by that time the crop sowing season is over.
Foremost important is to have crop- based soil health card coupled with soil test - crop response relatiinship based prediction models to suggest fertilizer recommendation...
Benchmarking the Inelastic Neutron Scattering Soil Carbon Method | Vadose Zone Journal | GeoScienceWorld
This method can be used in mobile devices and applied to many elements in the soil.
Wielopolski L, Carayannis E. Nuclear methodology for non-destructive multi-elemental analysis of large volumes of soil. Planet Earth. 2011 Oct 3:467-92.
The way your explanation is stated, it appears that the problem is not so much the analysis for the soil health card but the timing and service delivery. [You don't even mention whether the results as they are currently supplied are appropriate (apart from being out of date).]
One remedy to the problem comes to mind: the laboratory does not get paid for the results until they are delivered to the client. If the results are late, the farmer doesn't have to pay. That would very quickly determine if the laboratory is prepared to work for their money.
Of course this may not work if the laboratory is funded by other sources (government agency/aid program etc). If that is the case, they are failing their charter and there are other means to improve service.
The next solution is more resources:
- technicians
- equipment
- probably also physical space to locate both above
- training (chemical and procedural)
- support via data management and quality control
Unfortunately, all of this takes a lot of money (which people seem not to want to part with), and time (which costs money, see earlier). Having a "fast and accurate" device will not improve the soil health cards if the data it generates is not properly stored in an accessible way.
See what fao.org is doing with the Glosolan project here: https://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/glosolan/en/
I do agree with you , Mathew Wheal, this is indeed a chronic gap felt seriously worldover , but our interpretation of soil test results is highly desired . For the simple reason , gneralised soil health card is ike beating around the bush....just imagin efirst soil helath card was released somewhere in 1898 with four basic soil properties like soil pH, EC, organic carbon and calcium carobnate . Unofrtunately, we are yet far from reality in this regard..
Dear Dr Prem Shanker Tiwari . See the following useful RG link: Article Soil macronutrient sensing for precision agriculture
Kindly see the following very good RG link: Chapter Current sensor technologies for in situ and on-line measurem...
See also the following very good RG link: Article In-field determination of soil ion content using a handheld ...
Accurate measurements of soil macronutrients (are needed for efficient agricultural production, including site-specific crop management (SSCM), where fertilizer nutrient application rates are adjusted spatially based on local requirements. Rapid, non-destructive quantification of soil properties, including nutrient levels, has been possible with optical diffuse reflectance sensing. We know that whenever we have a bumper crop of sorghum, maize, rice, wheat etc. the soil nutrient status changes after every crop season. Under such situation it is required to measure the soil nutrient status after every crop season. However, approach, electrochemical sensing based on ion-selective electrodes or ion selective field effect transistors, has been recognized as useful in real-time analysis because of its simplicity, portability, rapid response, and ability to directly measure the analyze with a wide range of sensitivity. With the increasing awareness of fertilizer effects on environmental and soil quality, soil tests have been instrumental in determining where insufficient or excess nutrient levels occur.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Agricultural Science
- Agronomy
- Crop Science
- Crop