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Analysis begins at renovated laboratory
By
SENIORL ANZU
LABORATORY testing of agricultural and natural resources has fully resumed at the NARI Chemistry Laboratory in Port Moresby after the facility was restored from destruction caused by arson in 2005. Laboratory Manager Peter Corbett confirmed this early this week, saying the laboratory testing has started with water and environmental analysis, soil fertility testing and assessment of plant health from leaf analysis. "Testing capacity is increasing progressively as new equipment arrives and by April we will look at quality assessment of natural products such as rubber, pyrethrum, vanilla and other spices, locally produced livestock feeds and food testing," Mr Corbett said. Mr Corbett said the renovation of the building was completed in 2007 under European Union support and now under the auspicious of the National Agriculture Development Plan, the "lab is being re-equipped with some of the advanced and computerised analytical equipment ordered from overseas and its highly experienced and dedicated staff are now using it". "The laboratory's core work, chemical analysis on soils and leaves, is important to determine what will grow best in a particular soil, how to improve yields, how healthy a crop may be and how nutritious is the food grown. Such analysis allow well planned agricultural practices, best choice of crops and most economical fertilizer application if necessary; to give the best yields and best income to farmers." Testing of water and environment is done for trace elements, heavy metals and drinking water with conformance to FAO quality standards. The refurbishment exercise was being undertaken in the last two years to bring back the internationally recognised laboratory. Initial renovation had been undertaken in 2007 through a collaborative effort between the European Union and NARI with a K1.5 million investment into rebuilding the facility to international design standards of monitoring and conformance. NADP supported in equipment restoration with well over K2 million. The return of laboratory services will help farmers, the natural resources sector and the general public in diagnostic and analytical services. Mr Corbett said major clients in the past included smallholder farmers, institutions, commercial agricultural industries, water suppliers, NGO's and environmental monitoring organisations. Patrick Olou, OIC Water and Environment at NARI Chem Lab, doing water testing on a new instrument for water analysis known as Inductive Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometer NARI Chemist Veronica Mangi doing soils fertility testing on a new instrument for soils analysis known as Atomic Absorption Spectrometer |
NEWS
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