Andrew
Online Reporter
Government has raised concern over the proliferation of bogus soil testers and is advising farmers to be on the look-out for scammers.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development’s head of chemistry and soil research, Mr Emmanuel Chikwari, said farmers should take soil samples to credible Government institutions for testing.
He was speaking during a soil testing demonstration at Bally-Vaughan Farm in Goromonzi district, Mashonaland East province, recently.
“Some are home-based backyard operations claiming to do analysis and giving results over very short periods, misleading farmers. Soil testing procedures and fertiliser recommendations should tally as lime and fertiliser recommendations are made based on field experimentation,” said Mr Chikwari. He urged farmers to test their soil regularly and use recommendations provided by reputable institutions.
“The correlation of crop yields to amounts of fertiliser added as deduced from soil test results was used to develop fertiliser recommendations norms and programmes,” he said.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter