History

Soils are crucial to life on earth. Soil supplies nutrients for growing plants, and plants manufacture food, fibre and fuel for us. Over half of global ecosystem services arise on land, where soils play a major role. Soils support plant growth, regulate water supply, function as nature's recycling system, influence the composition and physical condition of the atmosphere and play important role as an engineering medium. Managing soil is of utmost importance for enhancing its ecosystem services for global food and environmental security. The Department of Soil Science was established in 1961 under the Faculty of Agriculture which had appeared as the pioneer in Bangladesh in providing high quality education and research opportunity in all branches of Soil Science. It has a wide range of scope to support capacity building of both government and non-government agricultural organizations to promote sustainable agricultural development. At present the discipline is enriched with 15 faculty members who have expertise on highly diverse areas of Soil Science including soil fertility and plant nutrition, management of soils of unfavorable ecosystems, waste management, soil pollution and degradation, conservation agriculture, greenhouse gas emission and mitigation, soil water management and climate change adaptation and mitigation. It has six well equipped laboratories (Soil Physics, Soil Chemistry, Soil Microbiology, and Humboldt Soil Testing Lab etc.), five laboratory-cum-classrooms, and one each of seminar, library, and conference room. The Humboldt Soil Testing lab, being established in association with the Humboldt Foundation, Germany, has been serving to analyze soil samples and to recommend fertilizer application rates for farmers since 1977. A well organized and equipped HEQEP laboratory has been built up in the Department with excellent research facilities and sophisticated instruments. The Department has developed Soil Testing Kit for analysing soil nutrients with minimum cost and time. The Department has 20 projects ongoing funded by national and international organizations and has been in collaboration with many national and international organizations and institutes e.g. UEA, JLU, IAEA, OSU, University of Oxford, University of Dundee, University of Aberdeen, University of Southempton, University of Ghent, Murdoch University, Colorado State University, Kyoto University, Kyushu University, Okayama University, etc. It is notable that the Department has already created the opportunity of getting Sakura Science Exchange Program to 36 MS students in collaboration with Okayama University and still going on. The Department has also sent 30 graduates of BAU to pursue their PhD degree in Okayama University. Professor Dr. Md. Anamul Hoque is the pioneer contributor for this outstanding collaboration with Okayama University. The Teachers of this Department have published a good number ofresearch publications in many world reputed journals and are academically honored with different awards. They have innovated some technologies for the first time in the world and in Bangladesh. Soil Testing Kit, Rhizobium biofertilizer, clay mineralogical map of Bangladesh, research on heavy metal and micronutrient deficiency are the major achievements of this Department. The research focus of this Department is highly concentrated to enhance soil resilience and resistance to climate change towards improved ecosystem services of soils for sustainable crop production and environmental security.