Soil Testing - IFA Decision Support Tool

The decision support tool is designed to help farmers make informed decisions about where, what and how to test soils for specific areas of interest i.e if you are interested in soil biology, the tool will assist in what to look for, when to test, what tests to use and where these tests are available.

Click on the area of interest on the diagram above – chemistry, physical or biology

Why Should I Test?

The importance of soil health is well reported, warnings that our soils are severely depleted are common place and calls for farmers to restore and improve soils have now reached policy level. Measuring soil health offers a number of crucial benefits to farmers, these include:

Better understanding of yield constraints

Less reliance on external inputs

Improved resilience

Cost saving

However there is still uncertainty as to how we should monitor and measure soil health and how to apply soil testing to aid management decisions

Extended Reading: AAB Paper

Helping farmers to choose, use and interpret test results to inform soil management decisions for soil health By S Briggs and G E Éclair-Heath

We are continually seeking to improve the tool – we would welcome your feedback. Please send any comments to info@i4agri.org

CLICK HERE TO READ THE PAPER