Guide to Laboratory Establishment for Plant Nutrient Analysis

✍ Scribed by Motsara M.R., Roy R.N.

• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 220
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2008. — 206 pp. — (FAO Fertilizer and Plant Nutrition Bulletin, 19).
ISBN 978-92-5-105981-4.

Integrated nutrient management is a well-accepted approach for the sustainable management of soil productivity and increased crop production. It utilizes well-equipped testing laboratories. These need information on a widely acceptable methodology that can ensure reasonable accuracy, speed and reproducibility of results. The method has to be readily comprehensible to those who need to apply it in a routine manner.
This publication provides practical guidelines on establishing composite service laboratories;
information on the basics of an analytical laboratory; simple methods for estimating soil and plant constituents for assessing soil fertility and making nutrient recommendations; standard methods for estimating the parameters and constituents of irrigation water for assessing the quality; methods for analysing mineral fertilizers to judge their quality; methods for the isolation, identification, multiplication and commercial production of agriculturally useful microbial inoculants; and details of the equipment, chemicals and glassware required for a given analytical capacity.

Contents:
List of acronyms, abbreviations and chemical symbols.
Introduction.
The basics of an analytical laboratory.
Laboratory safety measures.
Laboratory quality assurance/control.
Standard operating procedure.
Error, precision, accuracy and detection limit.
Quality control of analytical procedures.
Preparation and standardization of reagent solutions.
Soil analysis.
Available nutrient content of soils.
Soil sampling.
Dispatch of soil samples to the laboratory.
Preparation of soil samples for analysis.
Analytical methods.
Plant analysis.
Sample collection and preparation for analysis.
Analytical methods.
Water analysis.
Important characteristics of irrigation water.
Collection of water samples.
Analytical methods.
Mineral and organic fertilizer analysis.
Sample collection and preparation.
Analytical methods.
Biofertilizer assay and production.
Types of microscopes and their use in the laboratory.
Examination of microbes by staining techniques.
Culture media.
Isolation and identification of important microbes.
Inoculation of culture medium.
Fermentation.
Measurement of microbial growth.
Quality control of biofertilizers.
Commercial production of biofertilizers.
References and further reading.
Annexes.
Floor plan of a soil, plant, water and fertilizer analysis laboratory.
Floor plan of a biofertilizer laboratory and production unit.
Items required for a soil, plant and water analysis laboratory.
Items required for a fertilizer testing laboratory.
Items required for a microbiological laboratory.
Summary of plant nutrient estimation methods.
Automation of analytical procedures.
Examples of laboratory registers.
Grades of chemicals and glassware.
Equivalent and molecular weights of compounds.
Soil sample information sheet.
Colour change of solutions owing to pH change.
Glossary of biofertilizer terms.
Units and conversion factors.

✦ Subjects

Сельское хозяйство;Агрохимия и агропочвоведение