Land degradation has emerged as a major factor hindering sustainable rural livelihoods, particularly in resource constrained regions.


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ICRAF equips Mali national labs with infrared technology for soil analysis
World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) successfully installed a multipurpose infrared spectrometer in Mali in a rudimentary laboratory based at the Institut d'Economie Rural (IER), Sotuba. The instrument installation and training of IER staff was conducted by Keith Shepherd in partnership with Bruker Optics.

With this instrument IER will be able to analyze not only soils and crops, but also a wide range of agricultural inputs and products, including manures, fertilizers, animal feeds, grains, milk, and agroforestry products such as wood, charcoal, and shea butter. Analysis of livestock wastes will also provide farmers with important information on animal nutrition and health. Now the equipment is up and running, analytical costs are virtually cost free. After only two days' training, the IER technicians are already scanning hundreds of archived soil and plant samples for which analytical data is available. These will be used to make calibrations so that soil and plant quality can be predicted directly in future from a 30-second scan on the spectrometer.

Photo: Infrared spectrometer being used to scan soil samples in the IER soil laboratory in Mali.

 

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