Alcala Launches P9M WV Organic Soils Lab

Alcala Launches P9M WV 

Organic Soils Lab

Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala will lead the launching of the Regional Organic Soils Laboratory worth P9 million at the Western Visayas Integrated Agricultural Research Center (WESVIARC), Jaro, Iloilo City on January 30.

This two-story laboratory the Department of Agriculture (DA) 6 Organic Agriculture Program funded is put up in order to serve the demand for modernized soil analysis and to respond to the need for specific analysis in the certification and licensing of organic agricultural products and inputs. 

Currently, Western Visayas ranks number two after Region 2 in organic agriculture production. Hence, the DA 6 Organic Agriculture Program seeks to increase the number of practitioners through the provision of organic farming facilities like this laboratory. 

DA 6 Regional Executive Director Larry P. Nacionales said the laboratory has state-of-the-art equipment to analyze organic and inorganic fertilizer samples, soil conditioners, liming materials, plant tissues and pesticide residues of agricultural products. 

The laboratory building costs P2 million and its equipment such as atomic absorption spectroscopy with heavy metal attachment, analytical and top loading balance, and nitrogen distillation cost P7 million. /MP