Cabinet Regulation No. 184 validating the Procedure for obtaining and collecting information on the level of fertility of agricultural land and its changes, as well as recognizing providers of agrochemical soil research services.

This Cabinet Regulation determines the Procedure for obtaining and collecting information on the level of fertility of agricultural land and its changes, as well as recognizing providers of agrochemical soil research services. The State Plant Protection Service obtains information in the following fields: (a) performing agrochemical research of soils; and (b) receiving soil agrochemical research data from recognized service providers. The fertility level of agricultural land is characterized by the following indicators: (a) soil type and granulometric composition; (b) humidity conditions; (c) terrain conditions; (d) degree of rockiness; and (e) agrochemical properties: basic indicators – content of organic matter, exchange reaction (pH), content of phosphorus (P 2 O 5) and potassium (K 2 O) usable by plants; additional indicators – content of exchangeable magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), sulfur (S) and trace elements. Soil agrochemical research is a set of activities that includes the following stages: (a) development of field work plan projects using digitized soil maps; (b) soil sampling according to the project of the field work plan; (c) testing of agrochemical properties of soil samples in an accredited laboratory using soil testing methods published on the website of the service; (d) entering and maintaining the obtained data in the soil agrochemical research database of the Crop Monitoring State Information System of the Agricultural Land Management System; and (d) evaluation of the obtained data according to the evaluation groups of indicators of agrochemical properties of agricultural land ( Appendix 1 ). The Service creates a representative sample set of agricultural holdings in all state planning regions, using the following selection criteria: (a) state planning region; (b) county; and (c) farm specialization – agriculture, animal husbandry, horticulture – and farming system – organic or integrated.