Soil samples were collected, in February 2009, from a farm land in Bilajig villagernnear Gondar town North West Ethiopia. The soil samples were taken from a farmrnland that uses chemical fertilizers for nearly three decades and from farm plot thatrnhas never used chemical fertilizers. Samples were also taken from border segmentsrnon which grass only is grown. The soil samples were placed for two months to settlerninto equilibrium. Gross beta counting using GM counter and gamma spectrometryrnwere proposed methods to detect radioactivity in the soil samples.rnAttempts to obtain detectable activity using gross beta counting method didrnnot bear result as the activity in the samples was below the critical level whichrnimplies that the farm soils radioactivity was below the detection limit of our GMrnsystem.rnUsing high resolution HPGe detection system, however, the presences ofrnradionuclides originating from 238U (such as 226Ra; 214Pb and 214Bi) and Thoriumrnseries members (such as 228AC and 212Pb) were detected. Further 40K and 137Csrnwere also detected.rnQuantitative analysis of the samples were done using the concentration inrnthe farm soil that has never used chemical fertilizers as unit. Thus the relativernconcentrations of 40K and 137CS is nearly the same for all farm soil samples.rnWhen it come to the relative concentration of the natural series membersrnsignificant presence of 214Pb is observed, ranging from 14 to 20 times, on farmrnplots using chemical fertilizerrnKey words: radionuclides, gamma spectrometry, farm soils, GM counter,rngross beta, counting rate