The Soil and Irrigation Water Laboratory is mainly responsible for the testing of soil and water samples brought to its premises by the general public, mainly by farmers. Also, it has participated in various projects for which soil analysis had been required such as the Maltese Soil Information System (MALSIS) project.

The main activities carried out by the Soil and Irrigation Water Laboratory can be summarised as follows:

• Testing of soil and water for salinity problems;

• Testing of soil for major plant nutrients;

• Soil physics examination for the determination of soil hydraulic properties and particle size distribution and

• Examination by atomic absorption spectrophotometry for the determination of minerals and pollutants in soil and water.

Facilities

The Soil and Irrigation Water Laboratory is well equipped with apparatus for physico-chemical analysis. These include equipment for the chemical analysis such as pH and conductivity meters, atomic absorption spectrophotometer, flame photometer, and ion selective electrode meter. As for the physical analysis the equipment include the Scheibler apparatus and the Eijkelkamp pipette apparatus.

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