Strategy for Soil health assessment for the benefit of farmers of West Bengal through fine tuning of existing Soil Testing Method.

2. Major soil related constraints in intensively cultivated areas
identified during SAARC, 2009 Workshop at Karnal, India
a)
Soil acidity and salinity
b)
Depletion in major nutrients
c)
Imbalanced fertilization
d)
Deficiency of micronutrients
e)
Declining soil health
SAARC (2009)

3. Severe impediment in SAARC countries
Resource poor farmer
Small size land holder
Poor land : man ratio
can’t afford good land care

4. The intent
1. Examining present pattern of fertilizer, pesticide and
water use;
2. Looking for alternative policy and technology for their
rational/balanced use;
3. Educating stakeholders for benefits of such use through
outreach activities;
4. Auditing the socio-economic impacts of such use;
5. Upkeeping natural resource base.

5. Potential transferable technology
Technology
Transferability
INM/IPM
High
LCC
High
Customized (with Zn/B) fertilizers
High
OFWM
Medium
SSNM
Medium
Symptomatic (typical)
High
Bio-village
Medium
Acidity/salinity amelioration
High

6. Capacity Building
1. Set up/strengthen soil, plant health and fertilizer testing
laboratories,
2. Prepare/update
soil
fertility/crop-pest
incidence
mapping,
3. Establish pest forewarning systems,
4. Empower the stakeholders through training,
5. Capacity
building/upgrading
skill/knowledge
of
technicians,
6. On-lining pest/soil nutrient mapping, “technology
basket”, and all other relevant site-specific information,
7. Documenting success stories.

7. 1. Due to poor utilization capacity of state soil testing
laboratories (only 30-35%), soil test and fertilizer
recommendation services is inadequate in the state,
2. Farmers are frustrating with the current soil testing
services as time taken for reporting is excessively high.
Even reports become available after crop season.
3. Reporting is made in English
understandable to the farmers, and
–
intricacy
is
4. Adhocisim in fertilizer application
5. Absent of Referral Soil Testing Laboratory in the state.
not

9. Establishment of
static soil testing
laboratory of 2500
sq ft floor space
under Directorate
of Research with a
capacity of 15,000
samples/year,

10. 1.1. Collection of soil sample a) GPS-based soil will be collected from
agriculturally intensified 5 districts,
b) 15 Village level scouts will be engaged for soil
collection with the assistance of ADA & Panchayet,
c) Panchayet Samity at Block level will be primary
soil collection centre,
d) Soil collected at Panchayet Samity will be
brought to Static Soil Testing Lab on weekly basis

11. 1.2. Soil analysis
a) 3 Soil Analysts and 3 laboratory Assistants will
be engaged for analysis of samples collected,
b) Soil will be analysed for pH, OC, EC,LR, NPK and
specific micronutrients. Pollutants and biological
attributes will be analysed for specialized
analysis,
c) Minimum charge will be fixed/sample on the
basis of operational cost.

12. 1.3. Fertilizer Recommendation –
Fertilizer recommendation will be made in
simple way in Bengali on the basis of –
a) Soil test value- Low, Medium, High fertility
basis,
b) Yield target fixed. Target Yield Equations for 20
crop are with us. This will be used where fitted
best.

13. 1.4. Fertilizer recommendation service
(at least 15 days before onset of crop
season)
• Through SMS
• Through toll free telephone service
• Through online using university
website
A documentary on soil testing and fertilizer recommendation and
few success stories thereof will be prepared for telecasting

14. 2. Introduction of mobile soil testing laboratory for
On spot soil testing and
fertilizer recommendation
Soil testing for far
reaching farmers
Well in advance
fertilizer
recommendation

15. 
Adoption of village!

16. To address objective - 2
Provision of soil
testing services
to non farmer
parties.
Govt,
Quasi Govt,
NGOs
Corporate sectors,
Environmental
agencies

17. To address objective - 3
Soil health diagnosis
Introduction of soil
health card
and
Mapping

18. To address objective - 4

19. Field history with
preset yield goal
Model Soil Test Report- An Example
Sample ID
Time bound
quality testing
and reporting
Analysis of all the nutrients to
determine existing deficiencies
Numbers as well as clear visual
interpretation guide
Site and crop specific precise recommendation for
pre-set yield target

21. This is Our Future
This is Our Future