Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries staff learn to use the Soil Test Kit to diagnose soil nutrient problems. The Soil Test Kit is a portable unit that can analyze soil for pH, ammonia, nitrate, phosphorus, and potassium in 30-minutes.

        Searching for treasure you can’t see is an impossible task. That’s the problem that confronts farmers when managing crop nutrients in the soil. They don’t know if the nutrients are there because they can’t see it. Farmers need a way to see nutrients in the soil.

            The Soil Test Kit, about the size of a bread box, provides a quick and easy way to test soil for pH and the major nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. A weak acid solution extracts the nutrients from a thimble-size sample of soil. Reagents are added to the clear extract to develop a color for a particular nutrient. The intensity of the color is compared to a standardized chart which corresponds to categories low, medium, high and very high. These categories reflect the nutrient content of the soil.

           The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) staff diagnosed many farmers’ fields across the country using the Soil Test Kit. Crops officers in all 13 districts have a kit and received training on collecting and analyzing soils. They identify nutrients lacking in the soil and advised farmers on how to correct it with fertilizer or compost. In the Baucau District, some farmer fields were diagnosed with low nitrogen and phosphorus. When nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers were applied, yields rose from 2,500 kg/ha to 3,000 kg/ha. On another farm, a farmer applied nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizer to his field of maize every year. The soil was diagnosed as low nitrogen and high phosphorus. Withholding application of phosphorus resulted in the same yield, 4,300 kg/ha, as when phosphorus was applied.

           The Soil Test Kit is transforming the way MAFF helps farmers. Instead of teaching farmers across the country to apply the same fertilizer rates, MAFF diagnoses the soil nutrient problem in a specific field and tailors a fertilizer program for the farmer. The customization of the fertilizer program will help farmers to increase crop production, lower production costs, and help reduce the potential to degrade soil and water resources.