DELIVERING POSITIVE IMPACTS

Africa’s farmers are faced with two challenges: ensuring sufficient food production while minimising the impact on the natural environment. Through Agrilab’s testing and advisory services, farmers can engage in more effective and efficient soil fertility management plans, dramatically reducing soil nutrient loss, as well as other positive environmental benefits. Thanks to the improvement in production cost-efficiencies and productivity rates, the farmers in the region could see unprecedented growth.

AGRONOMY

Healthy, balanced, fertile soil ‒ the most important ingredient for ensuring crop success.

This agronomy division of AgriLab analyses soil and plant material for agricultural use and produces analysis of soil and leaf nutrients, water retention capacity and various other soil characteristics. With this information at hand, the AgriLab team can advise farmers on their fertiliser, watering and planting requirements and schedules.

In order to assess soil and crop health the laboratory will have the following wet chemistry analyses available:

• Soil texture analysis: General soil property analyses include a visual screen, gravimetric soil sample density, particle size distribution using a fraction analyser, titratable acidity, pH and EC. The particle size distribution, pH and EC measurements are fully automated utilising cutting-edge robotic analysers.
• Organic matter analysis: This important indicator of soil fertility will be measured using a high temperature combustion analyser which can produce fully automated examination of total nitrogen, protein, total carbon, inorganic carbon, elemental carbon and organic carbon. These analyses can be done on soil, leaf and crop samples.
• Elemental analysis: Individual elements, including metals, can be important indicators of micronutrient availability in the soil and micronutrient uptake of the crop and water quality and will be measured using inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES).
• Nutrient analysis: A study of the nutrients cannot always be conducted using single element analyses as they require a combination of elements to be examined in conjunction. The laboratory will have a specific Continuous Flow Analyser (CFA) dedicated to the precise evaluation of ortho-phosphate, total phosphate, nitrate, nitrite and also potassium, sodium, sulphates, chloride, ammonia, urea and boron. This equipment provides state of the art colorimetric methods for determining key soil and fertilizer ingredients essential for healthy plant growth and maximum crop productivity.

In order to ensure homogeneity and accuracy across all tests, all of the laboratory analyses have been automated in line with global best practice standards. AgriLab’s multiple robotic analysers ensure that samples are prepared and analysed in a consistent manner, free from human error. The laboratory prides itself in conducting frequent and real-time quality control analyses along with all of its client requests.

PRODUCT QUALITY

Using a sophisticated blend of liquid- and gas-chromatography mass spectrometry and other scientific techniques, our food quality division assesses the chemical compounds in soil and vegetative samples, ensuring that both the soil and the produce grown in it are healthy, free of toxins and comply with the required safety standards.

Testing for the presence of:

• residues from pesticides and herbicides in consumer goods
• aflatoxins content
• purity of other molecules of interest in products meant for market consumption

Our one-stop soil quality testing shop and advisory services ensure farmers ‒ from small-scale to commercial ‒ have access to cutting-edge information and testing.