Chapter 1 Soil Health and Nutrient Management
1.8. R ECOMMENDATIONS
1.8.1. Revamping soil testing services
In order to strengthen the soil testing service, a few new STLs are established every year in different states. As the infrastructure, human resource and functioning of these new labs is no way different from the STLs established earlier, their output in terms of quality and credibility also remains the same. Poor mass acceptability of the service among the end users (farmers) in past 6 decades of its existence is enough to indicate that this model of expanding the STL network needs fresh look for complete overhauling of the service. There is need to establish fully-automated STLs with modern analysis facilities and adequately-trained manpower. These labs may maintain series of advanced equipments for faster and precise analysis.
An exposure of apex authorities involving bureaucrats and technical experts to modern STLs
in the developed countries would help grasping the idea of establishing such STLs in India.
These duly-accredited high output STLs with daily analysing capacity of say 500 or more samples may be established under public sector or in a PPP mode, initially on a pilot scale (may be one STL in each state). Depending on the success of this experiment, establishment of such STLs at divisional level in each state could be thought of. It can then be driven as an enterprise model. Proliferation of small STLs in the name of strengthening soil testing service is not a professional approach in the long run.
The universal SHC contains a substantive potential for promoting private enterprise. Credit linked subsidy back-ended scheme can incentivise the educated youth to set up static and mobile testing laboratories (STLs/MTLs), besides mini-laboratories. While there is space for setting up new facilities, there also exists scope for Public Private Partnership (PPP) models, under which the government set up labs can be outsourced to private agencies for management, preferably to youth with education in agricultural science.
Creation of a dedicated service cadre for soil health monitoring
In order to hire trained human resource and ensure their retention in the soil testing service, creation of a state-level dedicated service cadre named ‘Soil Health Monitoring Service’
appears an innovative option. These officers should be exposed to advanced level professional trainings and orientation courses at a regular interval. At present, the STL personnel are frequently transferred from/to STLs within the State Department of Agriculture. Hence, they hardly own the service. Even a training imparted to such officers turns out to be wasteful as they may not continue with the STLs after their transfer to some other job. Creation of a separate cadre would also enhance self-esteem of the officers, who will work hard to compete and rise up to the highest position within the cadre.
Alternatively, private sector service may also be encouraged, so that both infrastructure and manpower get built up as per desired standards & quality.
Short-term diploma in soil health management
The SAUs may launch short-term (say 6 month duration) diploma courses on soil health management for 10+2 pass rural youth, so as to make available para-soil health monitoring and management staff to facilitate collection, labelling and processing of samples as per prescribed protocols, and also day-to-day maintenance and upkeep of the STLs. The diploma should also provide due exposure and training in different soil health management technologies like preparation of bio-fertilizers, different types of composts etc. This would improve overall quality and efficiency of soil testing service and other soil health management enterprises, besides raising farm income directly by way of generating employment opportunities to the rural youth.
Maintenance of lab equipments
The lab equipments need constant maintenance and timely repair whenever these go out of order. In addition to adequacy of budget, visit of a service-engineer on phone call is necessary, particularly for STLs located at district headquarters and small townships. In fact, timely
services are a challenge even in the metropolitan cities. Maintaining standby equipments (namely pH meter, EC meter, shaker, balances, spectrophotometer and flame photometer), along with a mandatory annual maintenance contract (AMC) of the equipments would be helpful.
Deployment of trained human resource
The In-charge of a STL should essentially be a post graduate in Soil Science, and the technical staff not less than an agriculture/science graduate. In many STLs, the officers with training in subjects other than Soil Science are Lab In-charge. The In-charge and technical staff need to periodically undergo advanced training in soil testing and fertilizer recommendation to keep themselves abreast of the recent developments and to refresh their analysis skills. This component is rightly included in the ongoing SHC Scheme, though an efficient mechanism for the same needs to be developed. The SAUs and ICAR institutes should be given the responsibility of organising regular trainings/refresher courses for the STL staff.
Using ICTs for effective monitoring
Use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) enhances efficiency, ensures accurate documentation of databases and enables proper monitoring. Launching of SHC portal by the DAC & FW is an excellent example of the use of ICT in soil testing service.
Linking GPS with the portal in the way that GPS coordinates are automatically recorded in the portal at the time of collection of soil sample would help effective monitoring of the soil sampling. Similarly, the STLs should have software to link the soil test data generated by different lab equipments with auto-generation of soil test reports, which could subsequently be transmitted to the SHC portal. Such interventions would avoid possibility of human error/negligence in manual data recording, and also improve faster delivery of results.
Establishment of quality control mechanism
There has never been any quality control mechanism in the soil testing service. As the expectations from the service have increased with launching of SHC Scheme, and a substantial budget is infused annually, it is essential to ensure the quality of analysis. For this, at least one well-equipped STL in each state and 2 in larger states should be designated as Referral STL, and charged with the responsibility of monitoring the quality of analysis of other STLs in addition to routine soil testing. Ultimately, the modern STLs as suggested earlier in this section should serve as Referral STLs.
A sample exchange programme could also be initiated within the states as well as across the states to compare the quality of analysis. Some kinds of incentives in the form of career advancement, increment etc. for star performers would be a great initiative to inculcate professional excellence.
Soil testing kits and other alternative tools
Besides static and mobile STLs, which use standard soil test methods, digital soil testing kits (mini labs) are gaining popularity in recent years. As the present STL network is not adequate
to cater to the soil testing needs of ~120 million farm holdings, there will always be scope for these kits to compliment the STLs. However, it has to be understood that soil testing kits are not a substitute to STL, as the methods followed in these kits may not give reproducible and accurate results comparable with the STLs.
Further, they are not as yet capable of testing all the 12 parameters identified under SHC scheme. There is need to constantly improve the quality and reproducibility of the output of the kits. Besides, newer technologies like hand-held hyper-spectral tools need to be rigorously validated using diverse soils, and standardized for soil fertility evaluation. Once validated, these tools may prove immensely useful.