This training is part of RECSOIL initiative for the recarbonization of global agricultural soils, which is being implemented in Togo as a pilot country for the African region. RECSOIL is a mechanism developed by FAO´s Global Soil Partnership (GSP) to scale up sustainable soil management practices, with a focus on soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration and maintenance. In Togo, the GSP is implementing RECSOIL in collaboration with the FAO Country Office, ITRA and the FAO´s Forest and Farm Facility.

Farmers are rewarded for applying sustainable soil management practices and improving key  chemical, physical and biological indicators of soil productivity as stipulated in the Protocol for the Assessment of Sustainable Soil Management. Monitoring these indicators and changes in soil carbon stocks requires high quality soil data. For this reason, the laboratory training aimed to improve the analytical capacity and data quality of the Togolese testing institutions.

Dr Elh Moudi Moustapha Abdourahaman, GLOSOLAN vice-Chair, visited the SEVE laboratory to provide a week-long training to 15 laboratory managers and technicians to build their capacity sample pre-processing, storage and measurement of soil organic carbon, bulk density, and soil respiration rate using the standard operating procedures (SOPs) harmonized by GLOSOLAN.

In addition to soil testing procedures, laboratory personnel was also trained on laboratory management, and health and safety measures. Moreover, special emphasis was put on quality control to improve soil laboratory procedures on equipment calibration, preparation and use of reference material, and participation to inter-laboratory proficiency tests.

After the training session, better practices will be adopted in the laboratory, which is now ready to analyze soil samples for the RECSOIL initiative in Togo.