ICAR-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute

The five-day Training Programme on ‘Advanced Techniques in Soil and Water Quality Assessment’ was organized by the Division of Crop Production, ICAR-CTCRI, for the staff members of the Department of Soil Survey and Soil Conservation. The training programme was formally inaugurated by Dr. G. Byju, Director ICAR-CTCRI, Thiruvananthapuram on 9th February 2026.

In his inaugural address, he emphasised the importance of need-based training on Soil and Water Quality Assessment for enhancing the knowledge and competency of the personnel, especially that of the fresh entrants, which could enable them to carry out the analysis and generate analytical results with better accuracy and precision. This will be beneficial for farmers and other stakeholders as well as to safeguard our precious natural resources, soil and water.

The programme was attended by 20 participants, which included Research Assistants, Soil Survey Officers and Assistant Director representing eight districts of Kerala. Dr. Susan John K., Principal Scientist, Division of Crop Production,welcomed the gathering and felicitations were offered by Dr.G.Suja, Head, Division of Crop Production and Dr. Sheela Immanuel, SIC, Extension and Social Sciences and Nodal Officer, HRD unit.

The participants were given hands-on-training sessions on aspects such as soil sample collection and processing, estimation of soil physical properties, soil chemical parameters like soil reaction, organic carbon and all the major, secondary and micronutrients, e-crop based smart farming and water quality estimation. Advanced instrumentation techniques such as Absorption and Emission Spectrophotometry, electrochemical analysis and Optical Emission Spectrophotometry were also dealt with during the programme. The training concluded on 13th February 2026.

The programme was co-ordinated by Dr. V. Ramesh, Principal Scientist;Dr. Jeena Mathew, Senior Scientist and Dr. Susan John K.Principal Scientist, Division of Crop Production, ICAR-CTCRI.