Food and Fertilizer Technology Center - About

Background and rationale

Fertilizer applying to promote yield and quality of food production is imperative to cope with increasing world population. However, the amount of many essential nutrients required by crops could vary greatly according to soils, climate, growing seasons, crop varieties, cultural practices, and so forth. Due to lack understanding of soil fertility and nutrient status of plant, overuse of fertilizer not only causes harvest unexpected less, but render salt burden to environments.

Soil test and plant analysis is an efficient and direct tool to determine soil fertility and nutrient status of crop. In view of best understanding the information of soil/plant to enhance crop production, laboratories for soil/plant testing are recently established or installed in several countries. However, the performance of laboratory involved with analysis methods, QA/QC, and data interpretation are all very critical to the success of nutrient diagnosis and fertilizer recommendation to farmers.

More and more laboratories are actively participating in the program of inter-laboratory comparison (or proficiency test) in order to get certification or accreditation for analytic quality of laboratories. In light of maintaining and improving the quality of soil/plant testing laboratories in Asia-pacific region, a proficiency testing program (PT program) of soil and plant tissue analysis will also be conducted before this workshop.

With the advancement of information technology, by combination with GIS and ICT technologies, soil/plant testing data not only can be applied in soil fertility diagnosis, but also to site-specific nutrient management, soil qualities change monitoring, land use planning, and so on. Through exchanging experience of soil/plant testing and inter-laboratory comparison of soil/plant testing results, the reliability of testing data can be ensured and the quality of soil/plant testing laboratories can be improved. It is expected to further ensure yield/quality of food production and environmental sustainability.

Objectives

• To conduct “Determination of nutrient contents in soil and plant tissue proficiency testing program”
• To exchange experiences on the soil and plant tissue analysis in the Asia-Pacific region
• To enhance the capability of soil and plant tissue analysis in the Asia-Pacific region

Workshop program

Sep 11 (Tue): Arrival of overseas participants

Sep 12 (Wed): Opening Ceremony, Keynote Session, Session I, and Session II

Sep 13 (Thu): Session II to Session V, Closing Ceremony

Sep 14 (Fri): Field Trip (Invited Only)

Sep 15 (Sat): Departure of overseas participants

Venue:

International conference hall, Biotechnology Division, Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute

1F, No. 225, Fengzheng Rd., Wufeng Dist., Taichung City 413, Taiwan (R.O.C.)

1. Add more sessions on soil and plant tissue analysis and consider   other sampling techniques in future workshops;
2. Continue the PPT program, set mechanisms and consider doing the exchange of scientists in the Asian Pacific region;
3. Use cycles in the number of analysis in doing soil proficiency tests to get more accurate results;
4. Establish mechanisms to keep track of fertilizer recommendation rates and guidelines for fertilizer use;
5. Conduct training programs for young scientists to inculcate a deeper appreciation of soil science and soil laboratory techniques;
6. Develop strategies to gather more laboratory staff to share their knowledge and experiences in PT;
7. Strategize ways to convince more farmers to develop their interest in soil testing; and
8. Encourage the formation of communities or network or soil scientists to share and update information on soil science and related technologies.