GIS-GPS based soil fertility maps of micronutrients of village Harnas of Bhor tehsil in Pune district

Abstract

Investigation on GPS based soil fertility maps of Harnas Village of Bhor Tehsil of Pune District was undertaken with 120 geo-referenced (GPS) surface soil samples (0-22.5 cm depth) during the year 2017-2018 at Division of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, College of Agriculture, Pune with the object to assess the soil chemical properties with available micro nutrients. The latitude and longitude of the sampling site were recorded with the handheld GPS instrument. It is observed that 97.5% soil samples belong to slightly acidic to acidic in reaction. However, the EC of soils ranged from 0.10 to 0.20 dSm-1 and soils are categorized as normal for emergence of seed. The organic carbon content of soil ranged from 0.21 to 0.71 per cent and categorized as low to high. The calcium carbonate content was medium to high and it ranged from 0.24 to 12.50 per cent. Soil pH was non-significant but positively correlated with DTPA extractable Zn but showed negatively significant correlation with Mn and Fe with the r values of -0.189*and -189* respectively, indicating that as soil pH decreases, the availability of Fe, Mn increases. Electrical conductivity had non significantly positive correlation with Cu. While, the organic carbon showed significantly positive correlation with extractable Fe (r = 0.239**) and non-significantly positive correlation with Mn, Zn and Cu. The CaCO3 found negatively and significantly correlated with exchangeable Fe and Mn with the r value of -0.176*, -212** respectively. The spatial distribution maps of soil were developed with help of Arc GIS 10.2 software.