Practical Soil Testing Procedures Using Simple Instrumentation for a Haiti Soil Testing Laboratory.

Soil testing is an invaluable tool in helping farmers in deciding appropriate fertilization and management strategies for maximum crop production. Unlike the farmers in the western world who have access to soil testing facilities, those in developing countries are disadvantaged because of limited access to soil laboratories and testing fees are prohibitively expensive. In most cases, soil testing facilities that offer advisory services to farmers are ineffective because of lack of skilled and qualified staff capable of carrying out analysis, interpreting the results and make recommendations, inadequate infrastructure and basic supplies, and in general these facilities lack the funds to maintain expensive instrumentation. Haiti is a good example of a developing country whose economy is based on agriculture and yet soil testing still needs to be adopted. There maybe existing satisfactory soil testing laboratories but those frequently serve the needs of the research and university communities. To improve crop productivity in this area, a soil testing laboratory is considered with technical assistance from the University of Georgia (UGA) Soil Testing Laboratory. Simple instrumentation and practical laboratory methods are currently tested and developed at the UGA lab using Haiti soils. Once the methods have been tested and identified, researcher and/or technician from Haiti will be trained at UGA. Detailed procedures will be discussed.