About the Department
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry is one of the oldest departments established in the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Coimbatore during 1906 to undertake teaching, research and extension activities in the erstwhile Madras Presidency. The research works centered on soil resource investigations in command areas, manures, plant chemistry, bacteriology and animal nutrition. Laboratories to test soil, fertiliser and pesticide residues, soil survey and land use, animal nutrition and soil microbiology were established as important divisions in this Department.
Since inception, the Department is entrusted with the responsibility of undertaking teaching, research and extension in various branches of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry in Tamil Nadu and also for coordinating the research programmes in other Campuses and Research Stations. Currently the Department is functioning with eight units viz., Soil Test Crop Response (STCR), Micronutrients (MNS), Long Term Fertiliser Experiments (LTFE), Soil Physics (SP), Radio Isotopes (RIL), Soil Resource Inventory and Pedology (SRI&P), Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) Teaching and Research.