Soil testing

Soil test based fertilizers recommendation


Soil test based fertilizers recommendation is important for balanced nutrition .At present there are 686 Soil Testing Laboratories (STL) in India with analyzing capacity of 7.21 m soil samples. Out of these 647 STL are run by state govt. 39 by fertilizers industries and 20 by State Agriculture University (SAU) and ICAR. But these numbers cannot cope with the growing need.


Reasons for soil testing not successful in India  -
1. Error in sampling
2. Difficulties in proper procedural estimation
3. Improper interpretation of results

Soil and water testing kits

It is practically not possible to establish STL in each and every village and blocks. Now a days Soil and testing kits are available which can analyze Ph ,EC ,organic carbon, P,K,N,S along with some micronutrients. In some kit lime and Gypsum requirement calculation provision are there.  These kits are low cost (Rs 2500 - 5000) and are available in the market. These kits are having enormous potentialities to reach each and every field of farmers.

Digital soil testing kits

It has recently been developed which can analyze N ,P, K, S, Zn and B and give fertilizers recommendation just by moving the knobs. It is simple ,easy to operate and low cost.