Soil and water testing Laboratory of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala, Punjab

Rajan BhattAssistant Professor (Soil Science)Krishi Vigyan Kendra,Kapurthala

rajanbhatt79@rediffmail.com(98159-63858)

Soil testing is the only way to determine the fertilizer needs of a crop in a

particular field. Soil test is the analysis of soil sample to determine the available nutrient

status and physico-chemical properties of soil. The prime step in the soil-testing

programme is the collection of soil sample. The fertilizer recommendations for the field

crop are generally given on the basis of only a small amount of soil used in the

laboratories. Actually, the one to ten grams of soil used for each chemical analysis should

represents as accurately as possible the entire six inches (top six inches) of soil, weighing

about one million kilogram per acre.

Fig 1 Technique to collect soil sample for orchard plantation

Therefore, it is important that soil samples should be a true representative of the

field. Soil sampling for fertilizer recommendation for the field crops is performed up to a

depth of top six inches because the top six inch soil is the area that has the majority of the

root activity and secondly the fertilizer application and cultivation operations are mainly

confined to this depth. While taking the sample, the surface litter (if any) is removed with

a trowel or spade and the soil is collected from the surface to plough depth (0-6 inches)

from 8-9 random spots in a field by giving ‘V’ shape incision. A uniform 2.5cm thick

slice of soil from top to bottom (6 inch depth) is removed and collected in a clean bucket

or wide container. To obtain a representative sample from bulk soil collected from

different spots, the soil is poured from bucket or to a piece of clean cloth or paper and is

mixed thoroughly. Quartering is then performed to reduce the soil to about 500 g.

Quartering is done by mixing sample well, dividing it into 4 equal parts, then rejecting

two opposite quarters, mixing the remaining two portions, again dividing into 4 equal

parts and rejecting two opposite quarters, and so on. If the soil sample is wet it may be air

dried in the shade before packing it in the cloth bag. Care should be taken to avoid soil

sampling from unusual areas viz. recently fertilized, old bunds, marshy spots, under the

trees, composed pits etc. The cloth bag should be properly marked to identify soil sample.

The information sheet encompassing the information like name and address of farmer,

depth of soil sampling, crop rotation, irrigation facility, crop history, the fertilizer applied

to the previous crop etc. should be enclosed in the cloth bag.

Soil and water testing Laboratory of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Kapurthala,

Soil and water testing lab of KVK, KAPURTHALA starts working the year 2006 and it

stood 1 st among all the newly opened labs in Punjab and 3 rd among all the

outstations of Punjab Agricultural University upto now followed by Gurdapur and

Bathinda (Regional stations) (Source: Annual reports of KVK’s zonal-1) In the very

first year, we received 152 samples from the farmers of the district which increased

considerably from then upto now and this is because of the awareness created by our

KVK among the farmers through the lectures which we delivered from time to time in the

different functions organized by the state government and by our KVK (Photo no.1 to 4

and newspaper coverage from 1 to 4)

Table1: Table depicting the performance of the Soil Lab of KVK, Kapurthala

Year Number of samples (Soil and water)received

Percent increase in samples received

2006 152 --2007 292 92.1%2008 381 30.5%2009 559 46.7%

1384

We can also display this graph as following. Graph clearly depicts the increase in

the no of samples received by the farmers showing their interest in knowing the inherent

soil fertility of their field so that they can apply the fertilizers accordingly as fertilizers

arequite costly and further it is difficult to arrange higher doses of the fertilizers in the

main season.Further it is worth to mention that we also received the samples from the

neighbouring districts viz. Jallandhar etc.

Graph 1: Performance of soil testing lab of KVK, kapurthala over the years

152

292

381

559

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50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

600

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2006 2007 2008 upto june 2009

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Inspite of analysing these samples , we also prepared the soil fertility map of KVK ,

Kapurthala depicting low O.C (%), Low Phosporus and low in Potash status.

SAMPLES ANALYESD UNDER THE FRONT LINE DEMONSTARTION PLOTS:

After selecting the farmer for a particular demonstration , we are quite interested in

knwoing the inherent fertilty status of his field so that he can be well guided regarding the

balanced use of the fertilizer. From the year 2006, upto now we had analysed 112 soil

samples of front line demonstration plots(free of cost). This we done only for the farmer

which we selected for carrying out a particular demonstartion.

Table no 2: Table depicting the samples analysed free of cost unedr DemonstrationsYears Crop Samples analyzed2006-07 Gram 04

Gobhi-sarson 09Sunflower 20Neem coated urea 04

2007-08 Demonstrations of Potash 05Neem coated urea 05Gobhi-Sarson 09Gram 05Sunflower 14Groundnut 01Moongi 02

2008-09 Sunflower 11Gram (GPF-2) 08Gobhi-sarson 10Granm (PBG-%) 05Total samples analysed 112

Thus in the nutshell we can say that Soil and water testing lab of Krishi Vigyan Kendra,

kapurthala working in the right direction by getting higher number of soil samples from

the farmers of the district. We had also finished one project by working with one of the

NGO named DHARTI BACHOA of Amritsar in which we took 79 soil samples from the

farmers fields from the villahe Nabipur and got it analysed. We have also good

collabartion with amny other organisations viz IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NFL, NABARD etc.

With whom we organised soil testing compaigns in different villages of our district and

thus trying to duide the farmers in the right direction regarding the judicious use of

fertilizers.

Photoes depicting the mission of KVK, kapurthala for encourging the farmers to test their soil prior to fertilizer application.

Answering enquiry of Farmers about Balanced fertilize use in TV Program Aahmne Sahmne at Village Thatta (District : Kapurthala, Punjab)

Soil Testing Campaign at Village

Demonstrating the Technique of Soil Sampling at Village Kanhan (District : Kapurthala, Punjab)

Demonstrating the technique of soil sampling to farmers at village Kanhan (District : Kapurthala, Punjab)

Some of the newscoverages depicting agenda of KVK, Kapurthala to encourage the farmers towards Soil testing