A Comparison of Two Soil Quality Assessment Methods in Relation to Crop Production and Other Ecological Services in Tropical Central India

Abstract

Soil quality degradation is a major threat to crop production. Therefore, periodic evaluation of soil quality
status of a production system is inevitable for adopting sustainable management interventions. The soil
quality status of tribal areas of central India is not known and there is no standard soil quality assessment
method developed for these areas. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to evaluate soil quality of tropical
central India by adopting expert opinion method (EOM) and advanced inclusive method (AIM) and relating
them with production functions and other ecological services. In total 1860 soil samples were collected
across Jhabua, Alirajpur, and Dhar districts of Madhya Pradesh and analyzed. Nearly 15 soil physical,
chemical and biological parameters were used for soil quality index (SQI) calculation. Weight and scores
were given to each indicators following EOM. In case of AIM, weight to each indicator assigned based on
its correlation with yield, degree of variation and per cent deficiency. The SQI, relative SQI (RSQI) and
relative yield (RY) were calculated. The RSQIs were related with the RYs using linear regression model.
Based on RSQI values of AIM and EOM, distribution of poor quality soils were of 66.3 and 77.2% for
Jhabua, 84.8 and 85.4% for Alirajpur, 69.0 and 67.2% for Dhar, respectively. None of the soils in the
region had very good soil quality status. Between two methods, AIM had advantage over EOM and it
focuses interlinking soil threats, soil function and ecological services. In conclusion, soil quality in the
study area is highly degraded and adoption of sustainable soil management practices could improve soil
quality and crop productivity of the study area.