Analysis of soil, water and plants now at the click of a button
10 August 2022, New Delhi: ICRISAT has launched a user-friendly online portal to provide clients with leading soil analysis services for better decision-making.
ICRISAT’s soil laboratory is bringing its analytical services online including soil, plant, water and compost analysis covering various parameters – 32 for soil, 22 for crop quality, 24 for water and 17 for compost samples.
Operated by ICRISAT staff utilizing high-end equipment such as Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (MPAES), the laboratory can analyze up to 250 samples per day for 18 parameters (including primary, macro, and micro-nutrients, and heavy metals).
The laboratory can generate soil health information inclusive of fertilizer recommendations for various crops.
The laboratory also hosts a dedicated plant analytics facility for profiling the nutritional quality of elite plant material and assessing the water quality for drinking and irrigation purposes.
“The analytical services platform is a user-friendly platform for the submission of samples and receipt of analytical reports.
“It also displays trends and changes in generated data over time,” said Dr Pushpajeet Choudhari, Manager, CRAL.
To make the services more accessible to a larger audience, the laboratory has launched a request feature on its portal. Users can submit details such as the number of samples requiring analysis (soil, plant, water, and compost), the project details and the delivery date of results among other requests.
With a strong focus on skills transfer, the laboratory regularly conducts field-level training on standard operating procedures for soil and plant sampling and hands-on training on SOPs of soil and plant analysis for interns, researchers and government agencies.
Launched in 1978, the laboratory was registered by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)-Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSAN) in 2019. The online portal was launched on July 27, 2022.
