Assessment of available nutrient status of different agro-climatic jute (Corchorus capsularis) growing soils of Eastern India

Abstract

Jute is one of the important fibre crops, playing a vital role in the livelihood of people of Eastern India. In the recent past, declining productivity trend of this crop has been observed due to various abiotic factors, prominent among them being poor soil nutrient management. To address the issue, four different agro-climatic situations (flood prone rainfed, undulated rainfed upland, high flood plain (diara) and flood prone situations) were selected and surface soil samples were collected from each of the sites, to identify the status and extent of soil major and micronutrient deficiency, trend of residual nutrient balance and the relationship between soil attributes and nutrients availability and their consequences /impacts on jute yield. The results showed that the extent of NPK deficiency in this jute growing region was 55.8, 82.7 and 73.1% respectively. Among the micronutrients Fe (1.92%), Mn (51.9%), Zn (25%) and B (75%) were also found to be deficient. Bivariate correlation coefficient analysis showed highly significant (P