1. Feasibility studies on developing farmer friendly rapid in-situ evaluation technique for soil quality in cocoa planation based on pocket-sized near-infrared spectroscopy and chemometrics

Rapid and in-situ determination of soil quality holds a brighter potential for improving food security, food quality and minimizing waste of excessive application of soil amendments with its effect of pollution. In this study a pocket-sized NIR spectroscopy (740 -1070 nm) and chemometrics coupled with mobile phone was used to predict nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), pH and calcium (Ca2+) in cocoa plantation soils in Ghana. Different partial least square algorithms (Full...