Abstract:
The present experiment for assessing and mapping of available macro and micronutrients status was
conducted in 101 villages of Lakhani block of Bhandara district in Maharashtra state of India, located in
north deccan Maharashtra lower plateau in ‘Wainganga’ sub-basin of ‘Godawari’ basin, during the pre monsoon season of 2015-2018. The collected and processed composite soil samples were analyzed for
some physico-chemical properties, available macro and micronutrient status. The results showed that pH,
EC, OC, N, K, P, S, Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn and B were ranging from 6.00-7.8, 0.1-1.9 dSm-1, 0.27-0.78%,
180.7-513.9 kg ha-1, 9.7-132.0 kg ha-1, 169.1-803.9 kg ha-1, 0.1-63.1 kg ha-1, 0.2-1.7 mg kg-1, 0.4-24.2
mg kg-1, 0.6-4.4 mg kg-1, 2.1-19.3 mg kg-1 and 0.1-2.3 mg kg-1 respectively. The nutrient index of
available nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and sulphur was 1.4, 2.4, 2.9 and 1.6 respectively. The nutrient
index values for available Zn, Fe, Cu, Mn and B were 1.1, 1.8, 3.0, 2.9 and 1.0 respectively. In 1960’s the green revolution has just pushed the production in such way that, intensive
cultivation of high yielding and hybrid varieties has declined the uses of organic manures as
well as crop residual recycling which has resulted to wide spread deficiencies in soil nutrients
(Santhi et al., 2018) [12]. Now a days the key factor for efficient fertilizer management is
appropriate supply of plant nutrients in balanced manner. Specific nutrient supply gives the
high production as well as it maintains the soil health. The presence of macro and
micronutrients determines the soil fertility as it is the inherent ability of soil to supply nutrients
to plants (Kumar et al., 2017) [9]. The study on soil fertility status of intensively cultivated soils
should be undertaken, which are majorly deficient in available macro and micro nutrients
(Dongarwar et al., 2015) [3]. The remote sensing and geographic information system techniques
are rapid, reliable, cost effective as well as it provide quick spatial information of earth surface
(Kashiwar et al., 2018) [8]. Soil information without geospatial coordinates is not useful for site
specific recommendations and subsequent monitoring. Whereas the use of GPS and GIS will
be very helpful for fertilizer recommendation and it is easy to access the status of soil fertility
spatially in future studies (Kashiwar et al., 2018) [8].
