Modeling the Spatial Variability of Soil Nutrients - A Case from Soil Health Card Project, India

Year 2024, Volume: 11 Issue: 3, 90 - 105, 28.09.2024

Ranga Rao Velamala , Pawan Kumar Pant

https://doi.org/10.30897/ijegeo.1465671

Abstract

Ascertaining and mapping soil nutrient data is crucial for governments to maintain soil health on farmlands. As part of the soil health card project, a total of 329 geo-referenced soil samples were collected from Thaticherla village, Anantapur mandal, Andhra Pradesh, India. These samples were analyzed for various soil properties such as soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC), available nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), available potassium (K), available sulphur (S), DTPA extractable micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu), and hot water-soluble boron (B) at a depth of 0 to 15 cm. The results showed high variability (>35%) in coefficients of variation in Cu, EC, Zn, and B. The findings indicated positive correlation between Zn and Mn; N and OC; and OC and Zn. The data underwent logarithmic and Box-Cox transformations to achieve normalization. The ordinary kriging method was employed to analyze the spatial variability. The findings revealed that exponential model was appropriate for B, Fe, Mn, Zn, and OC; Gaussian for K; J-Bessel for N; K-Bessel for Cu, P, and S; stable for EC and rational quadratic for pH, respectively. The analysis showed a strong to weak spatial dependency. In the study area, the spatial variability maps exhibited deficiencies of 97%, 96% and 40% for N, OC and Zn, respectively. Therefore, it is urgent to apply suitable manures and fertilizers in the study area to address these issues. The study area exhibited significant variation in spatial patterns, emphasizing the importance of implementing field-specific plans for soil health and environmental management.

Keywords

Soil Fertility, Soil health Card project, Environment, Geostatistics, Interpolation

Ethical Statement

As this manuscript does not involve research on humans or animals, nor does it include vulnerable populations, an ethical statement is not applicable.

Thanks

We would like to express our gratitude to Chief Soil Survey Officer, Soil and Land Use Survey of India (SLUSI), Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India for providing necessary resources to carry out this research.

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