Abstract
Soil fertility degradation has become a major problem for agricultural management in Nepal. A detailed soil fertility status of different VDCs of Sunsari district was investigated during 2015 and soil related crop production constraints were identified for proper utilization of agricultural land. Total 131 numbers of geo-referenced (GPS based) composite surface soil samples (0-15 cm) were collected from eleven Village Development Committees of Sunsari District. The sample points were recorded with a differential global position system and mapped using Geographic Information System (GIS). Soils were analyzed for mechanical composition, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients like Boron, Zinc, Copper and Iron. About 38.9% soils were found to be silty clay loam, 20.6% were silty clay, 19.1% were clay loam and 21.4% were of other textural classes. Most of the soils were acidic and only few were neutral and slightly alkaline in nature. Soil Organic matter varies from 3.57% to 0.28% with a mean value of 1.53 %. The mean total nitrogen, available phosphorus, potassium was found to be 0.08%, 44.37 kg/ha and 128.04 kg/ha respectively. The mean hot water extractable Boron, DTPA extractable Copper, Zinc and Iron was found to be 0.14, 0.06, 0.15 and 10.71 mg/kg respectively. Thematic maps were prepared for each soil parameters using ArcGis10.1 software and ordinary Kriging interpolation was used in order to predict values for not sampled locations. The fertility maps provide the readymade source of information about soil fertility status and serve as the decision making tool for successful raising and development of crops. It can be concluded from the above study that GPS and GIS based soil fertility maps helps farmers, scientists, planners and students in providing soil test based fertilizer recommendation for intensive and sustainable site specific crop production.Int. J. Appl. Sci. Biotechnol. Vol 6(2): 142-151
Highlights
Soil fertility mapping is the way of assessing soil nutrients on the basis of soil sample test results and preparation of soil fertility maps at the required scale
Soils were analyzed for mechanical composition, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorus, potassium and micronutrients like Boron, Zinc, Copper and Iron and results obtained from laboratory analysis are presented in Figures 2-6 and Table 3
Most of the soils were found to be acidic in nature which may be due to natural systems like mineralogy, climate and weathering, use of acid-forming nitrogen fertilizers, or removal of bases
Summary
Soil fertility mapping is the way of assessing soil nutrients on the basis of soil sample test results and preparation of soil fertility maps at the required scale. Global Positioning System (GPS) has been widely adopted in the area of agriculture in preparation of thematic maps like land use, land cover, soil fertility maps, etc. Determination of available soil nutrients status of the area using GPS helps to formulate site specific nutrient management practice of the location, understand the soil fertility spatially and
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