Studies fertility status of sugarcane growing soils of Rahuri tehsil of Ahmednagar district (MS) using Geospatial technologies

Abstract

The detailed soil survey was carried out in sugarcane farmland of Rahuri tehsil of Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra state (India) to study the fertility status of sugarcane growing soils using nutrient index approach, mainly of primary and micro nutrients. High resolution remote sensing data IRS, LISS IV data of 5.8 meter resolution and digital elevation model (DEM) of cartosat (10 meter resolution) were used for land uses, slopes and landform analysis. By using geographic information system (GIS) technique total 188 soil samples at 0-30 cm were collected at 2 km grid intervals and soil analysis was carried out for checking the fertility status. The results reviled that all the samples found moderate to strongly alkaline, very low to high organic carbon percentage (0.35-1.15%), medium to high CaCO3. Concerning the available macro nutrients N, P and K which was observed between 103.7-224.8 kg ha-1, 9.3-25.5 kg ha-1 and 345.6-652.2 kg ha-1. Regarding the micro nutrients Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn was recorded 3.6 to 7.2 mg kg-1, 0.8 to 2.9 mg kg-1, 4.3 to 13.0 mg kg-1 and 0.02 to 1.5 mg kg-1.