Service of Land Development Department for agriculturalists                     In general, people understand the meaning of ‘soil’ as the upper layer of earth where plants can be grown. They do not really realize the importance of soil and misunderstand that only watering and adding fertilizer are enough for growing plants. Such idea is incorrect.                     Soil technician or soil doctor of Land Development Department can classify different kinds of soil according to its original source and environment. In order to avoid useless investment and decreasing crop yields, land suitability and soil potential should be considered before performance of land use.                     Nowadays, 190 million rai of soil resource in Thailand have already been deteriorated and crop yields have been decreased. As a result, the welfare and income of 30 million agriculturalists have been affected.                     According to its name, it may be hard to guess the duty of Land Development Department. Actually, Land Development Department is responsible for protecting soil and land from desertification. Its main duty is to prevent or solve soil problem such as saline soil, acid sulfate soil or soil erosion which decreases crop yields. Service of Land Development Department                     - To give advice on the management of soil resource and land use planning such as problem solution of saline soil, acid soil, coastal soil or deteriorated soil which decreases crop yields. Information of fertilizer utilization and planning of soil and water conservation system are also provided.                     - To establish soil and water conservation system including small scale water sources and water delivery system and perform soil improvement in the public area as requested.                     - To conduct analysis on soil, water and plant and test the quality offertilizer.                     - To provide some production factors such as compost catalyst, liquid organic fertilizer, lime dust, seeds of cover crops and saline resisting grass and vetiver grass seedlings in order to support technology transfer.