National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
|
PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
The present study was conducted to assess the effect of three agricultural land-uses viz. cropland, horticultural land and uncultivated land on soil quality and fertility status. Soil samples were collected from south-western plains of Punjab which is classified under semi-arid climate. Samples were analysed for assessment of some selected soil physico-chemical properties as well as macro and micro nutrient status. Results of the investigation reported that soil samples of the study area are slightly alkaline and non-saline in nature. Textural class observed as sandy loam in cropland and horticultural land while it was loamy sand under uncultivated land. Highest water stable aggregate (WSA) percentage was recorded under horticultural land and least was in case of uncultivated land at both 0-15 and 15-30 cm depths. Depth-wise increase in soil aggregation was also noted. Horticulture had highest soil organic carbon (SOC) concentration both in surface (8.91 g kg soil-1) and sub-surface soil (5.75 g kg soil-1). Available nitrogen (N) content followed a trend horticulture > cropland > uncultivated land but a different trend of cropland > horticultural land > uncultivated land was found in case of phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) availability in surface soil. In both soil depths cropland and horticultural land were found statistically at par with respect to available N, P and K contents. Highest available micro-nutrients were recorded under horticulture which was measured lowest in case of uncultivated land. All the macro and micro nutrients exhibited significant positive correlation among themselves. Negative correlation between SOC and BD (r = - 0.096) was observed while WSA was found highly correlated with SOC (r = 0.681, p = 0.01) and clay content (r = 0.681, p = 0.01). Micro-nutrients also exhibited significant positive correlation both with clay content and SOC.
Citations |
 |
 |
 |
 |
