Physical and chemical properties of soils under prevalent cropping systems in Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh

Abstract

A total of 90 Global positioning (GPS) surface (0-15cm) and subsurface (15-30 cm) soil samples were collected from 45 important sites covering wheat, maize, pea, potato and rajmash growing valleys of dry temperate zone to study physical and chemical properties of soil. The soils were neutral to alkaline in reaction and GPS based surface (0-15cm) and subsurface (15-30 cm) soil samples were collected randomly from different prevalent cropping system of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh. These samples were analyzed for physico-chemical properties, available NPK. In surface soils mean available N contents (200.13 kg ha-1) were in low category whereas, P (75.1 kg ha-1) and K (610.20 kg ha-1) were found in medium category under different cropping system. Clay was found below 20 percent and silt near and above 15 per cent. Soils were found sandy loam to silty clay loam in texture. Bulk density was highly variable ranging from 1.07 to 1.30 Mgm-3.