Soil Quality Assessment at Padre Micro Watershed, Kasaragod Kerala Using Geomatics

In this paper, study is mainly soil quality profile of lateritic soil since Southern part of Karnataka and Kerala is mainly varied with red soil and lateritic soil and also has major production of cash crops like coconut, areca-nut and rubber. Agriculture is an important enterprise of Kasaragod district Kerala, India. For the collected soil sample, basic soil tests such as moisture content, bulk density, grain size analysis and physicochemical parameters like pH, electrical conductivity, macronutrients organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were performed and results were calculated. The secondary nutrients like calcium and magnesium content of soil are analyzed. Results were interpreted from the spatial variation maps. The soil texture of the soil in the Padre micro watershed area is of sandy clay with very less percentage of silt. The percentage clay in soil ranges from 28% to 63%. Clay level will influence the behaviour of organic and inorganic pollutants in soil. The nature of the soil is acidic in pre-monsoon and post-monsoon. Generally, this characteristic feature is very common in lateritic soils. It is observed that organic content in the study area is in the range of 0.06 to 3.36% during the pre-monsoon season, and the values range of 0.1 to 3.8% during the post-monsoon season. Increased soil organic carbon and exchangeable bases are influenced by the vegetation, climate, altitude, and soil minerals, respectively. Another potential cause of the soil's pH being lowered is the existence of a larger concentration of organic materials. The decreased value of total nitrogen in organic plots may be due to crop uptake, microbial immobilization, and volatilization.

Anupama Natesh*1 and Arun Kumar Bhat2 Click here to download file

Research Article | Published online : 21-Mar-2024