THE Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries has launched four soil health manuals aimed at assisting the island’s farmers to produce better crops and increasing their productivity.

The manuals, titled Soil Health Assessments and Management, On Farm Irrigation and Water Use Efficiency, Soil Fertility & Crop Nutrient and A Technical Soil Guide From St Elizabeth, were produced by the National Irrigation Commission and the Rural Physical Planning Division in the ministry.

Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Dr Christopher Tufton (centre) and Permanent Secretary Donovan Stanberry (left) observe as farmer and chairman of the ministry’s Soil Health Steering Committee, Mark Brooks, displays one of the four critical training manuals which will be used by the Rural Agricultural Development Authority to guide farmers in the best practices of soil and water management. The manuals were launched at the Ministry’s Hope Gardens offices in Kingston on Tuesday. (Photo: JIS)

“For many years, Jamaica’s low agricultural productivity has been linked to the nutrient status of the soil. These manuals will therefore raise the bar, the level of awareness and the appropriate management practices that should be adopted to ensure high-yielding soil,” said Agriculture Minister Dr Christopher Tufton at Tuesday’s launch at the ministry's office in Kingston.

Tufton said that the country has a wide range of soil conditions as a result of the variability in parents' materials, topography and rainfall patterns across the island. According to him, “Different soils have different qualities.”

“These qualities determine the level of soil-inherent potential to sustain biological productivity, maintain environment quality and promote plant and animal health, and these four manuals will seek to provide data to address these and other concerns,” he emphasised.

In the meantime, the minister appealed to farmers to support and embrace the knowledge that is provided in the manuals, which he said will be distributed to extension officers employed to the Rural Agricultural Development Authority.

Additionally, Tufton said that the ministry has fully equipped its analytic laboratory to provide greater capability in the analysis of soil, plant and water samples as part of the ministry's effort to address the problem of low crop yields.

Meanwhile, chairman of the Soil Health Steering Committee and co-author of the manuals, Mark Brooks, told the Observer that the idea behind the manuals is to look at the chemical, physical and biological characteristics of the soil and how to better manage such characteristics so that they complement each other for better results in terms of agricultural production.

However, he said it was very important for farmers to understand the importance of maintaining healthy soil.

“Soil is actually a living structure; soil is not a dead piece of thing like a sponge. Life in soil makes it function and more importantly, you have to feed that life. The trouble is, all the life is microscopic, except for earthworms. Over 90 per cent of the lives in the soil, you can't see with your naked eyes,” he said.

“But we have to learn to feed the soil and care for the organism in the soil because that makes it function,” Brooks explained.

Brooks said the manuals are structured in a simple way for practical use and that the committee will be looking at training extension officers so that they can impart the knowledge to the farmers.