Assessing Soil Quality Index Under Different Sugarcane Monoculture Periods and Soil Orders

Abstract

ABSTRACT Intensive sugarcane cultivation has been carried out for more than 30 years in Indonesia and analysis of the Soil Quality Index (SQI) has not been widely carried out, especially on Entisols, Inceptisols, and Vertisols. This study aimed to assess SQI due to long-term monoculture periods in different soil orders. This study was conducted in multilocation design with two factors. The first factor was soil orders (Entisols, Inceptisols, and Vertisols), and the second one was monoculture periods (1–10, 11–20, and 21–30 years). The physical-chemical-biological properties of soil were analyzed. SQI score was calculated using Non-linear-Additive, Non-linear-Weighted Additive, Linear-Additive, and Linear-Weighted Additive scoring methods. The result show that SQI Linear-Additive method has the highest sensitivity level to observe the impact of the long-term sugarcane monoculture (2.210). SQI increased 28.2% in Inceptisols, decreased 25.8% in Vertisols and no clear pattern SQI in Entisols until monoculture 30 years monoculture periods. SQI has a greater effect on sugarcane productivity (R2 = 0.4472), than the effect with sucrose content (R2 = 0.1056). The long-term impact of sugarcane monoculture on SQI is highly dependent on soil order, so land management in a site-specific location is highly recommended based on the soil order so that sugarcane cultivation can be sustainable, resulting in optimal yields.