Agricultural Chemistry Service

the organization of agricultural chemistry services for agriculture.

This service exists in all countries which use large amounts of mineral fertilizers. The tasks of the service are development of scientifically based recommendations for effective use of mineral fertilizers and other chemical agents; agrochemical soil mapping; establishment of agricultural requirements in mineral fertilizers; control over use of fertilizers by farms; and popularization of information in the field of agricultural chemistry.

In the USSR the agricultural chemistry service is carried out by production-type agrochemical laboratories. The service was begun in 1931 with the organization of agrochemical laboratories at machine-tractor stations. After reorganization of the machine-tractor stations in 1958, the service was rendered by agrochemical laboratories under raion agricultural inspection stations and later by laboratories under kolkhoz-sovkhoz (or sovkhoz-kolkhoz) production administrations. A single state agricultural chemistry service was created in 1964, intended to head regional agrochemical laboratories staffed with qualified personnel.

This service embraces scientific-research institutions working with methods appropriate to a geographic network of fertilizer experiments. These institutions, using their own experimental fields, study the effects of fertilizers on yield and on variation in soil properties in the various soil-climatic zones of the country; they have at their disposal the results of numerous years of research. These scientific-research institutions render methodological assistance to regional agrochemical laboratories in fertilizer tests being run on the lands of kolkhozes, sovkhozes, and other agricultural enterprises.

Scientific-methodological direction of the agricultural chemistry service is exercised by the Central Institute of Agricultural Chemistry Servicing, USSR Ministry of Agriculture. Overall direction is exercised by the USSR Ministry of Agriculture and the agriculture ministries of the various Union republics.