Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for - Aseanipm ...

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Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for Organic Vegetable Production
5 Pull out and ‘de-soil’ (e.g., ipagpag or shake to retain soil in roots) weeds inside quadrant.
5 Collect soil litters and organisms (e.g., rove beetles, ants, millipede, earthworms, etc.)
found in soil surface and place separately in plastic bags.
5 Scrape soil within two inches depth of quadrant and place in separate plastic bag.
5 Dig a pit one meter deep and one meter wide to show soil profile.
5 Let participants determine layers in soil profile by describing color, texture, structure,
presence of stones, parent materials, etc.
5 Observe crop development, root depth, presence of soil organisms, etc.
5 Observe possible indication of management practices, nutrients, fertility level, organic
matter content, erosion hazards, etc.
5 Take soil samples from different layers.
5 List down all pertinent observations.
3. Go back to processing area. Brainstorm in small groups to design a suitable matrix to record
observations and do the following activities:
5 Summarize all observations made in the soil profile.
5 Draw and color soil profiles as observed or construct a mini-soil profile using soil samples
collected from soil layers.
5 List down all pertinent observations on soil and water management practices.
4. Present output of small groups to the big group. Conduct participatory discussion to allow
sharing of experiences among participants. Relate soil profile characteristics to abundance
of soil organisms, soil organic matter content, and soil water holding capacity, soil nutrient
availability, and crop productivity.
5. Synthesize and summarize output of small groups into one big group output. Draw up
conclusions and recommendation from this exercise.
some suggested questions for processing discussion
❏ What is a soil profile? Did you observe different soil layers in a soil profile? Did you see
variations in color, texture, and structure in different soil layers? What did these variations
suggest?
❏ Did you observe differences in kind and number of organisms and litters found in different
layers of a soil profile?
❏ Do you think there will be differences in performance (e.g., plant growth, development, and
yield) of crops to be grown in soils with varying soil profiles?