Block Level Soil Fertility Status of Tribal Dominated Jhabua District of Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

Nutrients present in a soil govern its fertility and control the yield of crops. Evaluation of soil fertility and soil quality status of a region is important for sustaining agricultural production. In the current investigation, tribal dominated backward Jhabua district of Madhya Pradesh, India was selected and geo-referenced surface soil (0-15 cm depth) samples (540 numbers) from farmers’ fields were collected. The collected soil samples were analyzed and their fertility levels were depicted through nutrient index and fertility maps. Results revealed major soil textural classes were sandy loam (38.2%) and clayey (27.2%) with neutral to alkaline soil reaction. The soil samples low in organic carbon, available N, P, K and S were 61.3, 86.3, 49.0, 5.2 and 78.1%, respectively. Among DTPA extractable micronutrients, soils were mostly deficient in Zn (22.6% of samples) and sufficient in Fe, Mn and Cu. About 56.7% of soil samples in the district were at least deficient in more than three nutrient elements. From the study, it is concluded that the soils of Jhabua district are deficient in multiple nutrients, thus, soil test based balanced nutrient management practices can be advocated to alleviate nutrient deficiencies of soils for sustainable crop production.