Soil Fertility Status of Some Villages under North-Eastern Coastal Plain Agroclimatic Zone of Odisha

Abstract

A soil fertility status inventory work was carried out in few villages of Salepur block of Cuttack district. Results show that soil texture of the villages under investigation varied from sandy loam to clay loam and soil colour lies within brown to yellow. Clay content in all the soils varied from 8.8 to 28.8 percent. Soil pH value ranged between 5.13 and 6.63 and electrical conductance remained <0.14 dS m^-1. Soil organic carbon (SOC) content ranged between 2.8 to 10.6 g kg^-1. Available nitrogen content in these soils was found to be low as it ranged between 112.5 and 237.5 kg ha^-1. Available phosphorus (P₂O₅) content varied widely from 4.0 to 146.9 kg ha^-1. Available soil potash (K₂O) content varied from 32.3 to 376.3 kg ha^-1. CaCl extractable soil sulphur varied from 0.95 to 10.9 mg kg^-1 rendered the soils deficient in S. Hot-water soluble boron content ranged from 0.06 to 2.28 mg kg^-1. All the figures in lower range were found in upland soils while the higher values for all the parameters were found in low land. There was an increasing trend of soil reaction, SOC, N, P, K, S and B from upland to lowland because of washing down of basic cations, organic matter and plant nutrients from uplands and subsequent deposition in low lands. Clay content was found to be positively correlated with all the parameters under investigation. Significant positive correlation among different parameters was found except sand which showed negative correlation with all the parameters.