JAIHOON RAFIE, RAJ KUMAR* AND KULDIP SINGH
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, School of Agriculture, Lovely Professional University,
Phagwara-144 411, Jalandhar (Punjab), India
*(e-mail : raj.18340@lpu.co.in; Mobile : 9417000478)
(Received : November 18, 2018; Accepted : January 15, 2019)
ABSTRACT
Soil test based fertilization has now been recognized as an effective technology for achieving better use
efficiency of fertilizers and also for sustaining the productivity of agricultural soils. However, large scale
adoption of plot to plot soil analysis in various developing countries like India is often hindered by
predominance of fragmented land holdings and also lack of infrastructural facilities. An investigation was
carried out to understand and map the soil fertility statues of the Experimental Farm of School of Agriculture.
These soils had alkaline pH, with 59% area having pH greater than 8.5. The electrical conductivity of all
these soils was below 1.0 dS/m. All the soils were low in organic carbon with 86% of the area having
organic carbon content below 0.35%. The available phosphorus content in samples ranged from 4.48 to
118.72 kg/ha. Status of phosphorus was highly variable : as such the status varied a lot due to additions
of variable fertilizer in different experiments. The available potassium ranged between 134.2 and 431.2
kg/ha.Potassium status was high in all samples owing to sufficient presence of potassium bearing minerals
in the parent material of these soils. About 55% of the soils were deficient in available zinc and iron.
Manganese was deficient in 80% of the soils. However, soils were sufficient in available copper which
ranged from 0.38 to 2.3 mg/kg. Keeping in view the spatial variability in the nutrient availability, required
soil fertility management interventions have been discussed.
Key words : Soil survey, soil fertility mapping, soil taxonomy