Last week’s field agent training session in Sinthiou Malème (one of the main villages of our Tambacounda program in Senegal) focused on assessing soil quality through a technique called “hand texturing.” Hand texturing can be done in the field to determine soil texture. Soil texture is critical to understanding water holding capacity of soils.  Following this training, our field agents have the tools to identify some of the characteristics of high quality agricultural soil.  With this information, our agents will be able to help farmers identify soils most suitable for agriculture, make recommendations for suitable crops based on soil and identify potential causes of poor production.
