Bernardo van Raij

Possui graduação em Agronomia pela Escola Nacional de Agronomia (1962), doutorado em Agronomy - Cornell University (1971) e doutorado em Agronomia (Solos e Nutrição de Plantas) pela Universidade de São Paulo (1967). Atualmente é pesquisador colaborador do Instituto Agronômico de Campinas. Tem experiência na área de Agronomia, com ênfase em Fertilidade do Solo e Adubação, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: produção integrada de café, solo, analise de solo, cafeicultura sustentável e fertilidade do solo. Dr. Bernardo van Raij started his career in 1963 working in research in soil chemistry in the Pedology Section of Instituto Agronômico, the 111 years old research organization in agriculture of the State of São Paulo. In 1973 he was appointed chief of the Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition Section, position held during 17 years. After leaving the position of chief he continued as researcher until 1998. Dr. van Raij started his research work dealing with electrochemical properties of tropical soils, a work that many years latter proved to be fundamental for the understanding of the behavior of phosphogypsum as amendment of acid subsoils of oxidic soils. It resulted in the mostly cited paper in soil science published by a Brazilian, with more than 200 appearances in Science Citation Index. Moving from soil chemistry towards soil fertility was an easy task and it resulted in extensive work in methods of soil analysis. Some of the main achievements included laboratory methods of soil analysis and a new approach for liming tropical soils, flexible to accommodate the variable requirements of different crops towards soil acidity. The research on soil testing for phosphorus resulted in a paper with the description of the ion exchange resin method for P, Ca, Mg and K and in the introduction, in routine soil testing, of a new method of analysis based on the extraction with ion exchange resin. The important point was the introduction, in routine soil testing, of the extraction of P with ion exchange resin, the best choice for the evaluation of the bioavailability of the nutrient The quality of soil analysis was assured by a sample exchange program that includes 70 laboratories of 8 Brazilian states that use the new soil testing procedures. As the leader of the research group that introduced new soil testing methods in the state of São Paulo in 1983, Dr. van Raij also organized the fertilizer and lime recommendation tables of crops, published first in 1985 and latter, as the second edition, in 1996, dealing with about 200 crops. The second edition introduced some new features in recommendation tables of crops, including soil and plant analysis for macro and micronutrients, former soil use, yield goals and gypsum recommendation for acid subsoils. The improvement in soil analysis and fertilizer recommendations resulted in a large increase of samples analyzed yearly, from 65 thousand in 1982 up to more than 300 thousand nowadays in the state of São Paulo, and increase probably not observed elsewhere. Dr. van Raij is author or co-author of over 150 publications, including 4 books, dealing with soil chemistry, soil fertility, soil testing, agronomic efficiency of fertilizers and amendments and other related subjects. One book deals with the use of gypsum as amendment of subsoil acidity (5,000 copies). Another is a text book in soil fertility and fertilizer use (10,000 copies). The comprehensive publication on soil and plant analysis and fertilizer recommendations (first edition, 1985 23,000 copies; second editon, 1996, 10,000 copies) was announced in Fertilizers & Agriculture, July 1998, page 5. (Fonte: Currículo Lattes)