DEVEL0PMENT OF SOIL DATABASE

Owilla, B. P.O., Elizabeth, A. O., Njagi, R. E.

IntroductionKenya needs to intensify monitoring of soil trends irrigation schemes in order to meet

the growing demand for food, fibre and industrial development ; and as an early warning for wrong agricultural practices due to migration of human populations to drylands.

rapid destruction of soil structure and changes flora and fauna, due to intensive irrigation/pesticides/fertlizers within upstream-downstrean ecosystem can result to low yields and low farm incomes

. A similar trend has been experienced our old irrigation schemes viz. Kalacha in Marsabit, Bura and Hola.

The enormity of information that needs to be generated under intensive irrigation necessitates modernization of the monitoring data capture, analysis and communication.

In this project, therefore, an electronic soil monitoring database was developed to effectively monitor the irrigation-induced soil changes to facilitate timely corrective measures for sustainable irrigation water and land productivity

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PURPOSE AND FUNCTIONSA. To monitor soil quality/fertility through: • Repository for soil chemical and physical quality of Mwea, Bura,

Perkera schemes and advisory channel to farmers .• To receive and communicate to and from farmers, scientists and

manage data• Monitoring soil toxicity from pesticides and metals • To monitor weather patterns in Mwea, Bura and Perkera and

related soil chronosequence

• Sustainability of scheme irrigation soils therefore requires monitoring of the irrigation-induced spatial and temporal changes in the soil physical, chemical and biological environment.

• Monitoring water quality in sections of scheme

Management activity Outline

Administration Research Database

Web database

ADMINISTRATIONSAMPLE ACQUISITION AND DESSIMINATION

• NIB has passed all requirements for soil tests and linked to other soil testing laboratories, especially the KARI NARL laboratories and other which work as a back-up.

• Facillitated by an accredited laboratory that is ISO certified through Kenya Bureau of Standards.

• Soil monitoring activity will be governed by regulations of processing laboratory (chemistry lab) for request on soil status and sample deposition

RESEARCH

• Standard Operating procedures for analysis Protocols• Collaborating Research and academic institutions,

(e.g. UoN & KARI NARL)

• Equipments: water distiller, centrifuge, Kjedhal nitrogen steam distillers for digestion apparatus, pH meter, Calorimeter, flame photometer, electro conductivity meter, AAS(Atomic ABSORPTION Spectrophotometer, GLC or HPLC

MS-Access Database communication

Request formDepositor forms

DatabasesContacts

Web-DatabaseCommunication based on web based catalogue which will

be made available in electronic form via www://chemistry-pc/soil monitoring

About page/Home pageRequest form

Depositor formsDatabases

ContactsRegistration form

Contacts of NIB

DATABASE

QUERIES

Soil fertility

Bura Weather

Depositor form

Bura weather Catalogue

Mwea soil catalogue

SALINITY DATABASE

CAPACITY BUILDING

• All lab technicians in NIB-chemistry lab trained to manage databases in :

Ms-Access MSQL administration and implementation Instrumentation Data interpretation software

THANK YOU FOR THE AUDIENCE