A national centre archiving soil samples for agricultural activities, including identifying the types of fertiliser and chemicals suitable for particular plots, has gone operational.

The National Soil Archive Centre has been built on half a hectare plot near the Koye Fiche condominium site in Addis Abeba's Akaki-Qality District. Semeneh Asaye General Contractor built the centre for 4.6 million Br under the supervision of the Agricultural Transformation Institute(ATI).

The Centre is an extension of the Ethiopian Soil Information System (EthioSIS) project under the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI), launched a decade ago with an outlay of five million dollars. Soil mapping is a critical component of the project, as most farmers have inadequate information on what type of crops to sow and the varieties of inputs to use.

"It's basic and necessary," said Kiflu Gudeta, EARI's soil mapping team leader. "It'll push the sector one step forward and boost productivity."

He believes the Centre will ease soil research procedures. Previously, samples were kept in insufficient storage at the Agriculture Ministry, complicating the process and risking skewed results.

Officials of the Agricultural Transformation Institute (ATI) will hand over the centre to the Ministry. Mandefro Nigussie (PhD), chief executive officer (CEO), requested the Ministry's officials to take over the archive last week.

"We've all the necessary resources but are short in productivity," said Mandefro. "We're ready to hand the Centre over."

Mandefro, who studied genetics and plant breeding, says providing reliable and timely information about soil fertility is vital to apply chemical fertilisers and developing intelligent agricultural policies. Before he was appointed to his current job, he had various responsibilities, including as a state minister for agriculture and a director general of the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.