Soil Testing and Analysis

The well being of the humans including animals depend upon very much on how the soil productivity is maintained without ecosystems degradation. Most likely soil can efficiently sustain humanity with food, fibre, feed to animals and clean environmental maintenance only when it is considered and managed from the holistic and ecosystem points of view. Plants need at least 16 essential elements for their normal growth and to complete their life. The soil testing provides the status of the nutrients determined in the laboratory for the application of appropriate rate of fertilizers to eliminate the nutrients limiting for production. The soil testing along with plant analysis gives the true status of plant nutrients affected by soil properties to take the proper care for the plant growth. Our available water resources are diminishing and getting polluted with excess use of fertilizers and pesticides which are ultimately affecting the environment, food produced and water quality. The purpose of this book 'Soil Testing and Analysis' is i to provide the vital plant nutrients functions for which soil testing is to be made; ii to determine the nutrient status of the soil with appropriate methods, measurements and criteria for interpreting those assessments; iii to analyze the appropriate parts of the plant samples for nutrient elements with available methods of analysis; iv to analyze the important water quality parameters with interpretations; and v to prepare the soil, plant and water samples for the analysis of pesticide residues with the different available methods. This is a comprehensive presentation of useful information for the scientific and technical personals involved in such types of analysis.