Mykyta Surovov: “AgroCares Scanner is the perfect tool for instant check of soil fertility before land leasing”
Mykyta Surovov is the Plant Nutrition Product Manager of Eridon in Ukraine. Eridon is active in the Ukrainian market for more than 25 years in areas like plant protection products, special and conventional fertilizers, microfertilizers and seeds and since recently biostimulators. Eridon, wanting to remain a leader in the agriculture market, is always looking for new solutions and better diagnostics in agriculture. Eridon immediately was interested in the opportunity of fast, affordable and reliable soil testing with AgroCares Scanners in Ukraine, something that what was not possible before. This was the main trigger for Eridon to become one of the first users of AgroCares Scanner in Ukraine.
Current laboratory practices take too long and are imperfect
Mykyta Surovov: “During my PhD I’ve conducted extensive research into fertilizers of prolonged actions, giving me a lot of experience with ‘traditional’ agrochemical laboratories. That’s why I’m very aware of basic problems that exist in Ukraine with these methods of soil testing. The accuracy of an analysis is determined by many factors; taking good soil samples, the transport of the samples and finally the analysis itself in the laboratory being all important. This method is imperfect and takes too long in a traditional agrochemical laboratory. Being able to have immediate results about soil quality and knowing how to act on soil problems in the field is a huge leap forward. That’s why AgroCares Scanner is a great and at the moment, only, solution for these problems.”
Advising farmers with easy fact-based information
Mykyta Surovov: “Advising farmers in the right way is not easy, you have to take into account many factors as an advisor like moisture content, organic matter content, microbiological activity, granulometric composition of the soil etc., etc. If you can measure may of these components on the spot, it definitely improves the recommendations an advisor can give. Interpreting the results is with the current app (red: SoilCares Manager app) still not that easy. A professional advisor can however upgrade the quality of his recommendations for sure with AgroCares Scanner.”
New opportunity: soil quality checks
There is an increasing need in Ukraine to immediately check soil fertility of land when the owner has changed. Almost all land that is suitable for agricultural production is in use, often fragmented and divided between different agroholdings. When land is passed from one agroholding to the other they, of course, want to know instantly the soil fertility status of the soil, because decisions about leasing or purchasing land should be taken immediately. AgroCares Scanner is perfect for this use. Mykyta expects a fast growing demand for this service once the moratorium on land sales is lifted in Ukraine.