The Department of Agriculture (DA) has intensified its soil testing program in Eastern Visayas to expand the understanding of soil health and provide accurate recommendations to farmers in the region.<\/p>\n
The DA regional office said in a news release Tuesday that with the deployment of the mobile soils laboratory (MSL), the Bureau of Soils and Water Management (BSWM) conducted hands-on training to enhance the knowledge and skills of technical personnel in soil testing and analysis.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative supports the continuous improvement of local technical expertise and ensures that the mobile laboratories can deliver fast, reliable and science-based soil health assessments to farming communities across the country,\u201d the DA said.<\/p>\n
The BWSM launched the first-ever MSL in Eastern Visayas on Sept. 3 as part of a nationwide program to provide on-site soil testing and real-time results directly to farmers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project’s goal is to help farmers make more informed decisions, leading to healthier soil and increased crop yields. This marks a significant advancement for science-based, sustainable agriculture in Eastern Visayas,\u201d the DA said.<\/p>\n
Before the mobile laboratory deployment, experts from the DA regional office conducted a training on the proper use of the soil test kit (STK) for farmers across Leyte province.<\/p>\n
The STK is a simple, low-cost and portable kit that farmers can use to quickly identify macro- and micronutrient deficiencies in the soil that may limit its productive qualities for rice and other crops.<\/p>\n
The kit also helps recommend the proper type and amount of fertilizer for a specific land area.<\/p>\n
Eastern Visayas is predominantly an agricultural region in terms of land area. Forty-five percent, or 976,415 hectares, of its total land area is devoted to agricultural production.<\/p>\n
Despite these resources, growth in the farming sector has been sluggish over the years, as shown by its declining share in the regional economy, according to the DA. (PNA)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Strengthening soil testing is a step toward smarter farming and more sustainable production systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6005,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sustainability"],"zyndk8_nxtgen_metadata":{"nxtgen_comments":[{"1046":"dagdag kaalaman sa farming \u2714\ufe0f\r","1047":"super tulong eto sa crops yield \ud83c\udf3e\ud83c\udf3e\r","1048":"very nice project!! \ud83c\udf3e\ud83c\udf3e\r","1049":"hands on training pa talaga nice move\r"}]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greeninc.ph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}