6th NENA Plenary meeting, 18 - 19 November 2020, virtual meeting Mr. Abdelmjid Zouahri

1. Report from the Near
East and North African
Soil Laboratory Network
(NENALAB)
Mr. Abdelmjid Zouahri,
INRA, Morocco
NENALAB Chair

2. The meeting was organized by the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) and GLOSOLAN
governance, and was opened by Mr. Eduardo Mansur, FAO Land and Water
Division Director and Mr. Andrey A. Guryev, as representative of PhosAgro, donor
of the project
Eighty-two experts from forty-four laboratory of the region attended the
meeting (Algeria, Bahrein, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Sudan,
Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen)
The Near East and North African Soil Laboratory Network (NENALAB) aims to
facilitate the exchange of experiences among national reference soil laboratories
via:
1. Strengthening the performance of laboratories through use of standardized
methods and protocols;
2. Harmonization of soil analysis results so that soil information would be
comparable and interpretable across laboratories, countries and regions.
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

3. Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020
The objectives of the first NENALAB meeting were to
 Establish the Regional Network and its governance,
Agree on the activities to implement in the region in 2020 as
per the work plan of GLOSOLAN,
 Collect regional inputs on GLOSOLAN work.

4. The meeting was organized into three sessions:
i) the first session focused on the presentation of GLOSOLAN activities and
objectives and the presentation of each laboratory participating in the meeting
(status, needs and expectation regarding GLOSOLAN and the implementation of the
NENALAB).
(ii) The second session of the meeting consisted of training sessions on internal and
external quality control, health and safety.
(iii) In the last session, participants discussed and agreed on the 2020-2021 work
plan of NENALAB, the position of NENALAB in GLOSOLAN, and elected their Chair
and vice-Chairs.
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

5. Status of participating laboratories :
Participants were given the opportunity to present their laboratory
Laboratory facilities
Laboratory staff
Areas for improvement
The expectations related to the establishment and implementation
of NENALAB
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

6. Trainings:
The training focused on :
Internal and external quality control (trainers: Mr. Rob De Hayr, Department of
Environment and Sciences, Queensland, Australia and Mr. Christian Hartmann,
IRD France)
- Preparation of Quality Control (QC) samples and their use within laboratory
activities (especially in analytical batches)
- External quality control – proficiency testing (PT).
Health and safety (trainer: Ms. Hanane Aroui, IRD France)
- Laboratory safety, hazard and risk prevention
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

7. Position of NENALAB in GLOSOLAN
 Ms. Lucrezia Caon (GLOSOLAN Coordinator, GSP Secretariat) introduced participants to
GLOSOLAN and asked for their opinion on:
 The Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) that GLOSOLAN should work on harmonizing in
2020 and 2021 and the identification of regional leaders :
 In addition to the SOPs which are already on the agenda of GLOSOLAN, NENALAB proposed
the network to work also on the following SOPs in 2020:
- Texture and coarse fraction by pipette method and hydrometer.
- Dry bulk density
- Total heavy metals – digestion using aqua regia method
- CEC by ammonium acetate
- Exchangeable bases (calcium and magnesium) - titration by EDTA
- Exchangeable bases (Sodium and potassium) by flame photometer and AAS
- Available micronutrients (Fe Zn Cu Mn Mo) – extraction using DTPA
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

8. Position of NENALAB in GLOSOLAN
- Additionally, participants identified methods to harmonize in 2021-2022:
 Boron in soil extract by chloromin method
 Total Boron- hot water extract
 Chloride and Sulfate in soil extract
 Soil water retention curve (SWRC)
 Soil aggregates stability
- Opinion on the FAO Soils Bulletin 74 – “Guidelines for Quality Management in
Soil and Plant Laboratories”. Participant expressed the need to update the
guidelines
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

9. Governance
 Mr. Abdelmjid Zouahri from the Laboratory of Soil, Water and Plant
Analyses (Lab-URECRN) INRA (Morocco) was nominated Chair of NENALAB.
 Mr. Alaa Khallouf from the Damascus and Qunietrah Labs (ANRR-lab9)
(Syria) was nominated Vice-Chair of NENALAB for the Near East sub-region.
 Ms. Hana Nabil from the Laboratoire de Pédologie ENFI (Morocco) was
nominated Vice-Chair for the North-Africa sub-region.
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

10. Venue and time of the next meeting
 Due to the world pandemic, the 1st NENALAB meeting has been organized
virtually.
 This allowed all participants to be more confident with the powerful tool of
video meeting.
 Both advantages and disadvantages have been reported by the participants.
 After discussing this item, the majority of the participants proposed to
continue organizing NENALAB meeting online, in order to allocate resources for
trainings and other areas of improvement (such as equipment and training).
Report of the First meeting of the Near East and North African Laboratory Network
(NENALAB), Virtual meeting, 9 – 11 June 2020

11. Thanks for
your attention