Using soil health technology in India
The World Agroforestry Centre is now using its Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy (MIR)-based technology in India. This is creating the opportunity to measure soil health and nutrient status in real time, thus giving farmers rapid results to soil analysis tests. The Centre’s Soil- Plant Spectral Diagnostics Laboratory and South Asia Regional Programme are working closely with the Indian Institute of Soil Science (IISS) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on this initiative.
Around 119 million farmers in India depend on agricultural production for their livelihoods. Information on soil health and nutrient status will help them to apply the right types and amounts of nutrients and adopt management practices to maximize profitability without compromising the health of their soils. However, the current annual capacity of existing soil laboratories is around 1.3 million soil samples per year, against a projected demand of about 40 million samples per year as planned by the Government.
Traditional soil analysis methods are time- consuming and expensive and they often use hazardous chemicals. They are also incapable of meeting high levels of demand from farmers with low incomes. To overcome this, the World Agroforestry Centre has established a fully functional MIR laboratory at IISS and trained 12 Indian scientists to use the technology.
The scientists are calibrating the technology to the diverse soil types of India, and the results obtained so far are very promising in terms of their accuracy, speed, economy, mobility and adaptability. The speed and low cost enables large numbers of geo-referenced soil samples to be taken. This allows digital mapping of soil properties and soil potential at state or national level. The information can then be used to inform decisions about which land use and management practices are suitable for specific locations.
Light-based technology is being applied in other ways as well. In addition to MIR, the World Agroforestry Centre has installed a portablex-ray fluorescence spectrometer (pXRF) in the IISS lab for total element analysis in both soil and plant samples. This will help scientists to analyse micro and macro nutrient deficiencies in crops, and to calibrate the new spectral soils tests. The resultscan then be used to develop a risk-based approach to fertilizer and agronomic recommendations. The pXRF technology can also analyse heavy metals in soils and plants and be used to monitor soil pollution at mining and industrial sites and in urban areas, says Erick Towett, a soil spectroscopy scientist.
