First edition of the National Directory of Soil Scientists, listing 412 soil scientists, was published in 1994. In view of its usefulness, the Directory earned a lot of appreciation.z Because of dynamic nature of the information, however, the Directory required continuous updating at regular intervals. So far, this self-imposed professional commitment has been honored, regularly, at the eve of every biennial Congress of Soil Science.

This 8^th edition of the Directory, documents up-to-date information of 658 soil scientists, of which 152 are PhD, 465 M. Phil/MSc and 41are BSc. Further, 190 of the listed scientists belong to federal institutions, 255 to Punjab, 80 to Sindh, 55to NWFP, 15 to Baluchistan, 9 to AJK and 45 to agro-based industry and 9 misc. Discipline-wise break-up of soil science community in Pakistan is: Soil fertility, 320; soil chemistry, 62: soil mineralogy, 8: soil salinity, 95; soil microbiology, 45; soil physics, 19; soil conservation, 12; soil survey, 60: soil environment, 17and agronomy, 21.