Success? Soil testing? Not shot down immediately… well not totally…

7.18.08

So I am sitting at work reading this gigantic book about soil in English because it is just more productive for me to learn in English then read information in Romanian, though I do from time to time read in Romanian to pass the time while learning about agriculture and learn some terminology… that was a long sentence, I hope nobody passed out reading that aloud. ;-)

Anyway, I am reading about soils, crops, and fertilizer use, a book I never thought I would ever have any interest in ever in my life has me interested. So it is talking about soil testing for people so they can know in what condition their soil is in. With this information they might add some fertilizer (may it be organic or with chemicals I am not getting into that debate) to improve their yields of the crop or just the vitamin content of the fruit or vegetable.

So I ask my partner if he knows of any place where we could get tests like this done.. a lab or something near by. He said he didn’t know but there probably is. I asked if he does it, he says no, I know its necessary but I don’t do it, and neither does anybody else. After pestering him with questions and ideas as usual we get into a debate on weather or not this would be a good project or not.

Finally we decide to find out if it is even possible. I ask him if there is a testing center in Balti (big city south of us about an hour). He doesn’t know, I check the internet with avail. We decide to call our local office in balti and ask. They know of a place, they give us the number, we call, we find out they do exist, they do provide these services and guess what! They are really cheap and fairly fast. Aproximately $4 for a test and it takes roughly only 30 days to complete.

Then after finding out this information a man walks in a friend my partners of course he is not a random person looking for agriculture help from our hidden organization hears us talking about it and says, maybe he will go and get it done for his land. That sparks me into thinking, nobody really knows about this program, if they do they don’t’ know how about doing these tests, how about we do a project surrounding this topic?

Then after a second thought after my partner who doesn’t like working (the less the better, says we could just write we did this on paper but not really do it). I decide well how about we get the information from this lab (I hope they have information on how to do the samples and then how to interpret the results) and do some seminars for real in promotion to a business we can start by taking taking samples for people, taking multiple samples to lab, getting the info, translating the results for the locals in language they an understand then charge for this service.

Right? Sounds promising? Then comes him thinking… hmmm.. I dunno… lets ask people, so he goes about with me asking everybody we can find in the building if they would play, he of course didn’t pitch it right because you have to say the importance of doing the tests… you know really sell the idea before asking them for the $10 for the tests and results…. So everybody said… na… that’s ok and there goes our idea.

I will still try to do a seminar or so at least getting word out about it and whey its important. ( overuse of chemical fertilizers or misuse is horrible for the environment and detrimental to crop yields and nobody know how much to use but just buys the crap and puts it on their crops). From there if I can get enough interested I will try to sell the idea to them that we are a value add and maybe we can get some takers…

Next week we hopefully plan to go to balti and find the lab and ask for information. I offered to pay for the gas to get there and back, (without this its… a uhh its too expensive… we won’t go).

Crossin my fingers ;-)