[Kanal Media Unpad] Unpad Students from the Association of Soil Science and Land Resources (Himpunan Keprofesian Ilmu Tanah dan Sumber Daya Lahan, abbreviated as Himatan) won the Soil Judging Contest held by Institut Pertanian Bogor on October 28th-30th.
The Soil Judging Contest, an event in IPB Soil Festival, is a competition in which students compete to accurately classify types of soil and interpret land suitability in an area within fifty minutes. Fourteen teams from nine universities in Indonesia participated in this competition.
In this opportunity, the team consisting of Adisty Rana Jasmine, Puja Sindi Aulia, and Sifa Denisa Monica won first place. Prior to the competition, they had been rigorously preparing for the competition for two months.
“For approximately two months, we practiced directly on the soil horizon that was available on field, studied secondary data information about the area of the contest location, and studied how to examine land suitability factors,” said Adisty.
During the competition, Adisty’s task was to determine the physical features of the soil which include structure and size, texture, moisture and alkaline consistency, horizon boundaries, and the depth of each soil horizon.
Meanwhile, Sifa was in charge of determining the chemical characteristics of the soil, including the color and pH of the soil for each horizon, the coordinates and altitude of the place using GPS, and the slope by using the Abney level.
Sifa was also tasked to interpret land suitability based on available secondary data (rainfall, temperature, etc.) to see the inhibiting factors in the commodities of rainfed lowland rice, red chilies, and rubber.
Puja was in control of the written results of the morphological characteristics of the soil and the interpretation results of the suitability of the soil on the form identification. “After identifying the soil’s morphology, we discussed how we should determine the soil order in the area based on the national soil classification, soil taxonomy, and WRB,” added Adisty.
Adisty hopes that this victory can be consistent in upcoming competitions. “We also hope that it can motivate our juniors to participate in this competition,” she remarked.
Aside from Adisty’s team, Himatan Faperta Unpad also sent another team, consisting of Aditya Pratama, Verita Kristi, and Anna Sofiani, that won the Appreciation Award.*
