Soil Test Methods App: An Instant Guide to Soil Testing

Abstract

Soil testing is central to the nutrient management planning for economically profitable and ecologically sustainable crop production. Of late, it has assumed unprecedented importance in view of the growing awareness about soil health card in Indian agriculture. Indiscriminate use of fertilisers based on their blanket recommendations or without knowing the native availability of plant nutrients in soil is of little importance in modern agriculture which not only aims at improving crop productivity but also at maintaining the fertility status of soil for sustained crop production. Further, reliability of the ‘soil test based nutrient recommendations’ depends largely on precision of soil testing, which necessitates proper understanding and knowledge of soil test methods for different soil parameters commonly used in preparation of soil health card and making nutrient recommendations. We developed an android based mobile application “Soil Test Methods” as an instant guide to soil testing for students, researchers and soil test personnel. It can be downloaded from Google play store for free. Operational aspect of the app has been described in this article.