ABSTRACT
446The geo-referenced soil fertility monitoring was carried out in Jalna district, Maharashtra. The surface soil samples were collected in 96 villages from eight tehsils of Jalna district during 2012. Two soil samples were collected from fields of each of these small (< 1 ha), medium (1–3 ha) and large (> 3 ha) group of land holdings. The geo-referenced soil samples (576) were collected and coordinates of sampling sites were recorded using Global Positioning System. The soil pH ranged from 6.61 to 8.91 while electrical conductivity varied from 0.101 to 0.285 dS m−1. The free CaCO3 content was found to range from 1.38 to 11.42%. Mantha tehsil recorded the highest mean value of 9.31%. The calcium carbonate content was found to be distributed to 2.95, 55.21 and 41.84% in low, medium and high category. Organic carbon content in the soil ranged from 1.10 to 9.86 g kg−1. Jalna tehsil recorded the highest mean organic carbon content of 4.54 g kg−1 followed by Ambad (4.21 g kg−1) tehsil. The available nitrogen varied from 81.5 to 294.4 kg ha−1. The available nitrogen status was observed to the tune of 95.14% under low category. The available phosphorus ranged from 2.70 – 49.20 kg ha−1 in which 40.45% samples were found deficient while available potassium ranged between 93.0 – 619.0 kg ha−1 wherein 68.06% samples were found high while 27.08% samples were found medium. The available sulfur ranged from 4.53–30.41 mg kg−1 in which 24.65% samples were deficient and 67.36% samples were found medium. The available zinc ranged from 0.21 to 3.19 mg kg−1 and 54.2% samples were deficient whereas 43.9% samples were in medium category. The available iron ranged from 2.13 to 27.56 mg kg−1 out of which 29.5% samples were deficient. The available copper ranged from 0.30 to 5.98 mg kg−1 while available Mn ranged from 2.10 to 20.14. The nutrient index of nitrogen was low; phosphorus and sulfur were medium whereas the nutrient index of potassium was found high. The nutrient index of zinc was found low while that of iron was medium. The nutrient indices of Mn and Cu were recorded high. It could be inferred that, fertility of soils in Jalna district of 447Maharashtra was low in nitrogen and zinc, medium in phosphorus and iron while high in potassium, copper and manganese.
