Assessment of soil health under vegetable cultivation in sub-montane and subtropical zone of Himachal Pradesh
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Date
2021-12-04
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College of Horticulture and Forestry Neri, Hamirpur (H.P.)
Abstract
The investigation entitled “Assessment of soil health under vegetable cultivation in
open field conditions of sub-montane and subtropical zone of Himachal Pradesh” was
undertaken to assess the effect of vegetable cultivation on soil health and to determine the
correlation among soil properties and crop productivity. For this, 45 soil sampling sites were
selected randomly and 90 representative soil samples from cultivated and buffer conditions
were collected during September, 2020. All the required physical, chemical and
microbiological parameters of soil quality were analysed and key indicators were identified
using multivariate statistical analysis for computing the soil quality index. The soils of the
studied areas varied from sandy loam to loam in texture. Bulk density was found
comparatively lower in cultivated conditions as compared to buffer conditions, whereas,
maximum water holding capacity showed an opposite trend. The soils were neutral to slightly
saline in reaction and EC values of all the soil samples were in safe limits. The overall soil
organic carbon content was medium to high in status. Most of the soils were medium in
available nitrogen and all the soils of studied area were high in available phosphorous,
exchangeable Ca and Mg. Available potassium varied from medium to high and all the soils
of the studied area were deficient in available sulphur. Most of the macro and micronutrients
contents of cauliflower leaves of the studied areas were sufficient. Sulphur was deficient in
most of the leaf samples of cauliflower. Negative correlations of all the micronutrients were
observed with soil pH. Yield of the cauliflower crop was found to be highly significantly
correlated with organic carbon content. The mean soil quality index (SQI) values in district
Hamirpur, Una and Bilaspur were recorded as 0.739, 0.701 and 0.783, respectively under
cultivated conditions, whereas under buffer conditions mean soil quality index (SQI) values
were recorded as 0.537, 0.529 and 0.544, respectively. In the overall studied area,
comparatively higher soil quality/health index was observed under cultivated conditions
(0.738) as compared to the buffer conditions (0.536).