Bolivia launches a laboratory with technology used by NASA

The PRIAS laboratory will analyze soil carbon with a simplified process to save time, cut costs and get more precise results

Bolivia has just acquired a soil analysis laboratory with LIBS (laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy) technology, used by NASA to study the surface of Mars. Inaugurated in May 2024, in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, the lab will perform fast and accurate carbon and soil biomass measurements on farms in the region. This will be the primary contribution of the Innovative Regenerative Practices for Sustainable Agriculture (PRIAS) project, which grew out of a partnership between the Foundation for the Conservation of the Chiquitano Forest (FCBC), CREA Bolivia and the Conservation Strategy Fund (CSF), with technical assistance and funding from the Land Innovation Fund.

In South America, 70% of the native plant cover converted to farmland is used for pasture and 20% for agriculture, mainly for soy (FAO, 2000) and other agricultural commodities. Bolivia follows regional trends, with a high rate of land conversion for agriculture and livestock. With the PRIAS laboratory, the FCBC aims to make the site a reference center for soil analysis, to implement regenerative practices that recover degraded areas and improve crop yields, as part of efforts to halt the advance of the agricultural frontier in the country.

"Since soil is a fundamental natural resource for generating life, it is essential that it be restored or recovered as quickly as possible. Regenerative agriculture uses agricultural principles designed to mimic nature, thus establishing healthy soils and fertile agroecological systems," explains Hermes Justiniano, Strategic Advisor for the Chiquitano Forest Conservation Foundation (FCBC) and coordinator of the PRIAS project in Bolivia.

The PRIAS laboratory will make an important contribution to regenerative agricultural development in Bolivia by enabling local farmers to access the international voluntary carbon market. "The initiative is clearly important and will have real impacts on prospects for agriculture in the country, by meeting the global demand for food produced with sustainable, low-carbon practices in the field," said Land Innovation Fund director Ashley Valle.

NASA technology for Bolivian farms:

The PRIAS laboratory’s LIBS technology does soil analysis with no chemical reagents, using streamlined laboratory processes that save time, cut costs and enhance the accuracy of results. Each sample that comes in for analysis is recorded, bagged, dried, sieved, ground and then processed. The laboratory can process 200 microbiological assessment samples per month and 250 samples per month for LIBS analyses of their carbon content.

This is the only laboratory in Bolivia capable of doing microbial, foliar and root biomass analyses, essential for monitoring changes in a crops' capacity to fix carbon in the soil. "Other laboratories only do chemical analyses of plant-available components, while PRIAS can also evaluate the contribution of organic matter from regenerative crops and the impact on soils of integration with livestock," explains Verónica Oller, head of microbiological analysis at PRIAS.

Carbon is measured by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) at five points in the experimental plots and at two points in the control plots on the farm, at two different soil depths. The field samples also show total nutrients, as in classical analyses using chemical methods. This technique, however, can evaluate many more soil samples in a shorter time and at a lower cost, compared to the traditional methodology.

The PRIAS project:

Selected in the Land Innovation Fund's third round of funding, the PRIAS project coordinated by the FCBC promotes regenerative, low-carbon farming on soy and cattle ranching lands in eastern Bolivia. This transition zone between the Chiquitano, Chaco and Amazon ecoregions is suffering from the expansion of the agricultural frontier. The aim is to increase crop yields and reduce deforestation by applying and disseminating technical know-how on sustainable practices.

 To date, 43 farms with more than 120,000 hectares are involved in the initiative, in six municipalities in the Santa Cruz region. Regenerative agriculture activities are already underway on more than 400 hectares of the pilot area, in both agricultural and cattle-raising areas. The project will disseminate knowledge obtained from the experiments and scale up results to the rest of each farm's cropland, progressively enriching the soil, boosting carbon sequestration and enhancing biodiversity.