Assessment of Soil Physico-chemical Properties in Sugarcane Cultivation Areas of Navsari District, Gujarat, India
B. J. Keniya *
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat, 396450, India.
V. J. Zinzala
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat, 396450, India.
R. R. Sisodiya
Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, N. M. College of Agriculture, Navsari Agricultural University, Navsari, Gujarat, 396450, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Sentinel 2 satellite data from the year 2021 were acquired from the Copernicus site to identify the sugarcane producing area in the Navsari district. Hybrid classification approach i.e., supervised and unsupervised with ground truth data were applied using ERDAS IMAGINE software. After image classification, 2.5 km x 2.5 km grid was prepared in Q-GIS software which along with classified sugarcane area were overlapped for site identification. Then, random soil surface and sub-surface samples were collected with reference from grid of intensive sugarcane growing area. The particle density (2.10 to 2.76 g cm-3 with the mean value of 2.58 g cm-3) and bulk density (1.10 to 1.68 g cm-3 with the mean value of 1.33 g cm-3) of surface soil were found to be lower than sub-surface soil (2.18 to 2.79 g cm-3 and 1.15 to 1.68 g cm-3 with the mean value of 2.62 g cm-3 and 1.42 g cm-3 respectively) while porosity (31.60 to 59.26% with the mean value of 48.39%) and maximum water holding capacity (22.77 to 51.92% with the mean value of 39.60%) of surface soil were found to be higher than sub-surface soil (29.54 to 57.71% and 20.98 to 48.91% with the mean value of 45.60% and 36.81% respectively). The pH of soil surface showed range from 6.08 to 8.37 while pH of soil sub-surface noted range of 6.00 to 8.50. The electrical conductivity of surface and sub-surface soil showed the range of 0.011 to 1.580 dS m-1 and 0.010 to 1.586 dS m-1. The soil organic carbon of surface soil ranged from 0.06 to 0.89% while that of sub-surface soil varied from 0.02 to 0.85%.
Keywords: Surface soil, sub-surface soil, physical properties, chemical properties, particle density (PD), bulk density (BD), porosity, maximum water holding capacity (MWHC), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), organic carbon (OC)