The 10 soil orders are Ultisols (red clay), Alfisols (Mediterranean), Oxisols (laterite), Vertisols (grumusol), Spodosols (coniferous), Histosols (peat), Mollisols (Black Forest), Inceptisols (forest bed), Entisols (tsunami alluvial) and Andisols (volcanic ash). 

The samples can be found at the Indonesian Soil Museum in Bogor, West Java. 

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The museum was established in 1988 by the Agriculture Ministry and International Soil Reference and Information Center (ISRIC). Located in a Dutch colonial-style building, it hosts a micro-monolith collection of soils from across Indonesia.

Although the museum has been open to the public for free since December last year, it has a relatively low monthly visitor count of 700. Thus, the Indonesian Soil Museum’s management is actively promoting the museum through social media.

Read also: Four-tusked ‘elephant’ on display at Bandung museum – in fossils

Soil studies in Indonesia began in the Dutch colonial era, with the establishment of the Voor Agrogeologie en Grond Onderzoek Laboratory (Laboratory for Agrogeology Expansion) in 1905. The institution merged with the Agricultural Research and Development Agency (Balitbangtan) in 1974.

However, intensive Indonesian soil sample collecting by the Center for Agricultural Soil Resources (BBSDLP) only started in 1988. The effort aims to study Indonesian soils, which are more diverse and richer in microbes than those of other tropical countries. (iru/kes)

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