Designing a Soil Health Monitoring System for Intensive Vegetable Production Areas in Ogun State

Intensive vegetable production in peri-urban areas of Ogun State depletes soil nutrients, reduces organic matter, and increases soil-borne disease incidence through short cropping cycles and heavy chemical inputs, and a soil health monitoring system is needed to guide sustainable management of these productive but vulnerable soils. This study designed a soil health monitoring system for intensive vegetable production zones in Sagamu, Remo North, and Ijebu Ode LGAs of Ogun State, South West Nigeria. A professional system design methodology was employed, drawing on soil health assessment of 60 intensively farmed vegetable plots (soil chemical, biological, and physical indicators), structured consultations with 12 soil scientists and 8 vegetable extension specialists, and review of FAO voluntary guidelines for sustainable soil management and East African soil health monitoring protocols. The system designed encompasses a minimum data set of eight soil health indicators measurable with affordable field kits (pH, EC, organic matter, compaction, microbial respiration, earthworm count, nitrate level, and available phosphorus), standardised sampling protocols at seasonal intervals, farmer-accessible score interpretation guides, decision-support tools linking soil health scores to corrective management options, and a state-level soil health dashboard for aggregated monitoring by MOARD. Expert review by nine soil scientists and monitoring system specialists confirmed the system's technical adequacy. The study recommends the system be piloted on 20 vegetable farms per LGA with Ogun State MOARD agronomists as the primary monitoring agents.

Keywords: soil health monitoring, intensive vegetable production, Ogun State, soil indicators, sustainable management