Soil fertility mapping of a cultivated area in Resunga Municipality, Gulmi, Nepal.

Autor: Ghimire P; Department of Soil Science, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Bagmati, Nepal., Shrestha S; Department of Soil Science, Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur, Bagmati, Nepal.; Agricultural Technology Center, Lalitpur, Bagmati, Nepal., Acharya A; Department of Soil Science and Agri-Engineering, Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Bagmati, Nepal., Wagle A; Department of Agronomy, Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, Bagmati, Nepal., Acharya TD; Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, United States of America.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: PloS one [PLoS One] 2024 Jan 31; Vol. 19 (1), pp. e0292181. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Jan 31 (Print Publication: 2024).
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0292181
Abstrakt: Soil fertility maps are crucial for sustainable soil and land use management system for predicting soil health status. However, many regions of Nepal lack updated or reliable soil fertility maps. This study aimed to develop the soil fertility map of agricultural areas in Resunga Municipality, Gulmi district of Nepal using the geographical information system (GIS) technique. A total of 57 composite geo-referenced soil samples from the depth (0-20 cm) were taken from the agricultural land of an area of 52 km2. Soil samples were analyzed for their texture, pH, organic matter, total nitrogen, available phosphorous, available potassium, available boron, and available zinc. These parameters were modelled to develop a soil quality index (SQI). Using the kriging tool, obtained parameters were interpolated and digital maps were produced along with soil quality and nutrient indices. The result showed that the study area lies within the fair (0.4 to 0.6) and good (0.6 to 0.8) range of SQI representing 96% and 3% respectively. Soil organic matter and nitrogen showed moderate variability exhibiting a low status in 95% and 86% of the total study area. Phosphorous and potassium showed medium status in 88% and 75% of the study area, respectively. Zinc was low and boron status was medium in most of the area. To maintain soil fertility is by improving the rate of exogenous application of fertilizers and manures. The application of micronutrients like boron and zinc is highly recommended in the study area along with organic manures. The soil fertility map can be used as a baseline for soil and land use management in Resunga Municipality. We recommend further studies to validate the map and assess the factors affecting soil fertility in this region. Soil fertility maps provide researchers, farmers, students, and land use planners with easier decision-making tools for sustainable crop production systems and land use management systems.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Copyright: © 2024 Ghimire et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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