Abstract
The main objective of this paper is to check the soil fertility and salinity status. For this purpose, a total of 3325 soil samples, collected from all tehsils of Muzffargarh district (from tehsil Muzaffargarh, Jatoi, Kot Addu and Ali Pur), were tested in the Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Cane Development Cell, Fatima Sugar Mills, Muzaffargarh, Pakistan from 2012 to 2014. Samples were analyzed for soil reaction (pH1:10), electrical conductivity (EC1:10), soil organic matter (SOM), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) and plant available phosphorus (Olsen-P). The results revealed that pH ranged between 8.5-9.0 in 75 percent of the samples while about 95 percent were normal with respect to salinity(EC < 4 dS/m) and 74 percent were not affected by sodicity (SAR < 15). Soils were poor in organic matter (92 percent samples had less than 0.80 percent OM) and available phosphorus (95 percent samples had less than 15 mg P/kg soil).
Highlights
Muzaffargarh is one of the most important districts of Punjab from the agricultural point of view
Samples were analyzed for organic matter by Walkley and Black method (Cottenieet al. 1979), for exchangeable sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium extracted in 1M ammonium acetate pH 7.0 and for available phosphorous extracted with 0.5M NaHCO3 pH 8.5 followed by colorimetry (Watanabe et al 1965).The sodium adsorption ratio and CEC as the sum of bases were computed
The soil analysis data showed that 94 percent of the samples analyzed in district Muzaffargarh were not saline (EC
Summary
Muzaffargarh is one of the most important districts of Punjab from the agricultural point of view It is located between 29° 6' to 30° 45 'N Latitude and 70° 30' to 71° 48' E Longitude, in the middle of Pakistan between the two famous rivers of the sub-continent, Chenab and Indus. Muzaffargarh district consists of four tehsils Alipur, Jatoi, Kot Addu and Muzaffargarh. The district's towns include Khangarh, Rohillan wali, Shaher Sultan, Rangpur, Gujrat, Budh, Mehmood Kot, Sinawan, Thatta Gurmani, Daira Din Panah, Chowk Sarwar Shaheed, Shah Jamal, Mahrpur, Baseera, Wasanday wali, Jalwala, Pir Amir, BindaIshaq, Ehsan Pur, Bakaini, Seet Pur, Murad Abad, Ghazi Ghaat, Karam Dad Qureshi & Douna Alipur and Jatoi. On average 440 thousand hectares can be used for crop production. Dates, citrus and pomegranate are the main fruits trees grown whereas dates, jaman, pears, phalsa and bananas occupy a limited area (Anonymous 2013)
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