Boron availability in relation to some important soil chemical properties in acid soils of Cooch Behar district, West Bengal

Abstract

In the present study, we investigated the distribution of soil available boron and its relationship with some soil properties in the samples collected from different locations in acidic alluvial soils of Cooch Behar district in West Bengal during 2013-2014. For the study about two hundred fifty (250) georeferenced surface soil samples covering 11 blocks of the districts were collected with the help of a global positioning system (GPS). The soil results revealed that pH of the analyzed samples varied from 4.91-7.28 (mean value 5.68) which indicated that soils of the district were in the acidic to slightly acidic in reaction. Organic carbon content of the soils varied from 0.42 to 1.62 % with a mean value of 0.96 % and about 93.7 % of the samples were high whereas about 5.2 and 1.2 % of the samples analyzed were in medium and low category, respectively. Results also indicated that the available B content in the soils of the districts ranged from 0.04 to 3.87 mg kg-1 with a mean value of 0.51 mg kg-1 and about 38.26 % soil samples were classified under low, whereas, 3.58 and 0.35 % samples were categorized as medium and high in available B content. It was further indicated that the content of available B in soil was positively correlated with organic carbon (r = 0.170**) and negatively correlated with pH (r = -0.021). Organic carbon status was also found to be positively and non significantly correlated with soil pH (r = 0.062). The results of the study would be immensely helpful for the extension workers to recommended B application considering pH and organic carbon status in acidic soils of the district for a profitable crop production.