Key results

Biggest achievements

• Farmers improved their understanding of the challenges of atoll soil, which allowed them to adopt improved soil management approaches that could enhance their crop productivity.
• Extension officers’ capacity in soil sample collection and simple soil testing improved, which enhanced their competence in assisting farmers with soil management approaches to suit the farmers’ soil management needs.
• Sustainable Soil Management has been included in the Youth in Agriculture program.

Field trials

In Kiribati, two phases of field trials were successfully completed and a third phase is underway. For first phase (July – August 2019), cabbage was planted. The treatments included the addition of 0, 15, 25% compost and drip line irrigation above or below the ground surface. For the second phase (2019 – 2020), taro was planted. The first attempt was conducted in November 2019. The second attempt was conducted in February 2020 after the Kiribati team received advice from the CSIRO team to apply the same treatment as the cabbage trial, rather than applying compost to planting holes. For the third phase (2021), cucumber and taro were planted. One field site was on North Tarawa Island. The other field site was at the Kiribati Agriculture and Livestock Division site in Tanaea. Due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, the team from the Kiribati Agriculture and Livestock Division ran the field trials largely independently.

The position of the irrigation line (above or below ground) had no effect on yield. However, the amount of compost added to the soil significantly affected cabbage yield (Figure 1). These results showed that the application of 30% compost mix can improve cabbage yield.

Water monitoring technological devices

The chameleon and FullStop water sensors were installed at the Agriculture and Livestock Division site in Tanaea to build understanding of the equipment prior to setting it up in the field. They were useful for understanding and guiding irrigation. However, some minor issues were encountered:

• Need further training on the sensors and how to upload the data and understand it.
• Poor internet reception sometimes affects the data upload.
• There was a lack of equipment. It is recommended that chameleon reader and cables be purchased for two more field sites.

Extension and outreach

Location	Date	Audience	Topic
Tarawa	2021	277 (108 Females, 169 Males) Youth in Agriculture	Nutrient, water and soil management
North Tarawa	2021	134 (66 Females, 68 Males) Farmers at North Tarawa	Soil management, simple drip irrigation, crop and agroforestry, and plant health
Tarawa	2021	23 (6 Females, 17 Males) Agricultural Assistants	Simple soil test sample collection
Tarawa	February 2019	10 Youth; 6 farmers and 6 Ministry of Environment, Lands and Agriculture Developments staff	Soil sampling, Water infiltration technological devices (Chameleons and FullStops), Pacific Soil Project and nutrients, Nutrient management of garden wastes, why become an agricultural scientist?

Science impacts

• Research staff and agricultural assistants were trained in the use of simple soil test kits, enabling them to provide on farm analysis of soil nutrients.
• Water monitoring technological devices (FullStop and Chameleon) could be used to guide and improve water management to maximise uptake of essential nutrients at the roots and minimise loss of nutrients via leaching.