SAMBALPUR: THE Soil Testing Laboratory, Sambalpur, will be upgraded as a referral laboratory.
Informing this, Soil Chemist, Sambalpur, Babaji Charan Sethy said Microwave Plasma Atomic Emission Spectrometer (MPAES), a sophisticated machine, will be installed at STL, Sambalpur to upgrade it as a referral laboratory.
The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad will provide the MPAES machine which costs `4.5 crore, he informed.
The MPAES machine is expected to reach by month-end and the civil work for installation of the machine will begin shortly. The referral laboratory will be operational by July end this year, he said. Three staff of STL have already been trained to operate the MPAES machine, he said.
The referral laboratory in Sambalpur will be the second such facility in the State after Bhubaneswar, he informed.
The MPAES machine analyses soil samples with accuracy and provides requisite data of a soil sample, which helps farmers to know the soil quality. The MPAES analyses primary nutrients like organic carbon, phosphorous and potash, secondary nutrient such as nitrogen, calcium, magnesium and sulphur and micro nutrients including zinc, iron, manganese, copper, boron and molybdenum, he said.
Presently, they analyse 12 soil samples manually in a day in the STL, Sambalpur. However, they can analyse at least 300 soil samples in a day after installation of the MPAES machine, he informed.
The referral laboratory will also help in analysing the soil samples for distribution of soil health cards, which help the farmers to get an idea on the crop-wise recommendation of nutrients and fertilisers required in each type of soil and this can also help in increasing the crop yield.
Sethy said there is STL in every district of the State and soil analysis is performed manually in the STL. The referral laboratory, Sambalpur will collect soil samples randomly from the STLs of 10 districts in Western Odisha and check the accuracy of the soil analysis conducted by STLs, he added.