Soil properties have a significant influence on crop growth and the yields. In Nepal, access to soil testing facilities to know the fertility status are rather scarce thereby making it difficult for farmers to know the fertilizer requirement of their own land. The absence of a well-developed soil information system and soil fertility maps has been lacking for decades. So, it is difficult for the government and other stakeholders to design strategies for soil fertility and fertilizer management to improve crop productivity, estimate total fertilizer requirements in the country and correct soil acidity.

To address this gap, NARC’s National Soil Science Research Center (NSSRC) in partnership with USAID’s Nepal Seed and Fertilizer (NSAF) project produced an interactive digital soil map (DSM) that provides access to location-specific information on soil properties across the country.

The web portal of the soil map can help users retrieve information by selecting any province, district or municipality of Nepal. Users can also select an area of interest (either a single point or a large area) to obtain information on soil properties with a single click. The portal allows users to download these soil properties as a map or multiple properties in a tabular format.