A new way of testing soil fertility using global positioning systems for collecting samples will be introduced in the country this fiscal.

Global positioning system (GPS) provides reliable location and time information in all-weather and at all-times using satellites.

"The GPS-based sample collections will help monitor the nutrient status and acidic reaction of soil in an agri region after 2-3 years as it would be easy to locate the exact site through the devise and analyse the soil," ICAR Deputy Director General (Natural Resource Management, NRM) Anil Kumar Singh told PTI.

Earlier, soil sample used to be taken randomly from a village and it was difficult to go back to the same place after years by another set of officials, he added.

GPS based sample collections of soil for fertility mapping has been successful in the US, European countries and China has also adopted it recently, Singh added.

The exercise is expected to be completed in 85 districts by the end of 2010 and in 171 districts in two years, he said.

So far sample collection work has been completed in 18 districts in 12 states.

Regions from where samples have been collected so far are Farukhabad and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, Ludhiana in Punjab, Jalpaigudi, West Dinachpur and Nadia (West Bengal), Samastipur (Bihar), Mahaboobnagar (Andhra Pradesh), Thrissur (Kerala), Mandya (Karnataka), Bikaner (Rajasthan), Hamirpur (Himachal Pradesh), Anand, Khera and Baroda(Gujarat), Akola and Bhandara (Maharashtra) and Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu.

The exercise is jointly carried by ICAR and state Universities.