The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, has donated a Soil Doc Kit to the University, as the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, through the Soils of Forest Inland in Africa (SOFIIA) Project, has also presented a Motorised Auger to the institution. The Soil Doc Kit is used to analyse the soil in order to determine the best type and quantity of fertilizers to be used for productive farming, while the Motorised Auger is useful for those in Soil Science and Engineering to take the profile of the soil.
The Soil Doc Kit was presented to FUNAAB, during a workshop held at the Soil, Plant and Water Laboratory, Ibadan, Oyo State, where the representative of FUNAAB at the occasion, Dr. Florence Olowokere, was trained on the use of a mini-laboratory. Dr. Olowokere, while presenting the Soil Doc Kit to the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olusola Oyewole, represented by the Dean, College of Plant Science and Crop Production (COLPLANT), Professor Mufutau Atayese, disclosed that the equipment was a mini-laboratory, as the University was expected to visit 36 farmers on their respective farms to take soil samples and analyse them before advising them on the specific fertilizers that would be needed for successful farming.
Speaking on the benefits of the kit, Dr. Olowokere said it was portable and could easily be carried to farms where samples are taken, analyzed and results obtained instantly. Thereafter, the results could be uploaded on an android phone, which was also donated alongside the Soil Doc Kit for the interpretation of results, adding that the kit could help eradicate the challenges that most farmers faced while taking their soil samples to laboratories. Dr. Olowokere listed some of the components that could be found in the kit to include reagents, test tubes, measuring cylinders, soil sieve, nitrate meter, potential for Hydrogen (pH) meter, as well as plastic buckets that could be used to determine the nitrogen, active carbon, phosphorous and potassium contents and the pH level of the soil.
Similarly, the University has received a Motorized Auger. According to the SOFIIA Principal Investigator, Nigeria, Dr. Jamiu Azeez, the equipment, which cost about 6,000 Pounds Sterling, was part of the capacity initiative of the project. He said the equipment could be used to take soil samples, adding that it could also go down to the length of two meters to take the profile of a soil. "The Motorized Auger is useful for those in soil science and engineering who wish to know what is below the physical earth surface", he stated.
The Principal Investigator added that the project was also expecting another equipment in a few weeks’ time, which would cost an equivalent of N16 million and is called the Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICPOES). He said the ICPOES is so versatile that it could read all elements, while appreciating the University Management for providing the project with a dedicated room where the equipment would be housed, adding that it would be used for teaching and research purposes by the PhD Scholar attached to the project as well as postgraduate students in related fields. Responding, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olusola Oyewole, appreciated the donors for their generosity, assuring them that the equipment would be effectively utilised in line with the University’s tripodal mandate of teaching, research and extension service.
