As a part of the global strategy for sustainable farming, considerable emphasis has been placed on fast, accurate, and precise determination of elements in agricultural soil. ICP-OES has become a widely used technique for reporting the health of soils in the agricultural industry. This report describes the use of US EPA recommended sample preparation using microwave digestion of samples followed by analysis using Agilent ICP-OES. The method is not intended to accomplish total sample decomposition since for many environmental monitoring purposes the concentrations of extractable elements are more important than total concentrations a bound elements are not considered mobile and therefore available in the soil environment. View entire application note.