Assessment of Soil Fertility Status in a Cereal Based Cropping System at Outer Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh

Soil fertility management plays a key role in sustaining different production systems. Present investigation aimed at determining available nutrient status in cultivated soils under maize-wheat and paddy-wheat cropping sequences in outer Himalayas of Himachal Pradesh. Based on the standard GPS based soil sampling methodology, composite surface soil samples (0-15 cm) from 38 and 15 representative sites were collected from soils under maize-wheat and paddy-wheat cropping sequences, respectively. Six to eight cores of surface soils were collected from croplands to make one composite sample in 2016 & 2017. Out of 38 (maize-wheat) sites, 24 and 14 sites represent the cultivated Entisols and Inceptisols. Similarly, under paddy-wheat, 8 and 7 sites represent Entisols and Inceptisols. The results of the investigation revealed that soils were medium in available N & K, low in available P & S, high in available Ca & Mg, sufficient in available Cu, Fe & Mn and deficient to sufficient in available Zn and B. Inceptisols had higher value of all the nutrients as compared to Entisols. The available nutrient status viz., N, P, S, Zn and B were deficient to the extent of 26, 42, 57, 40 and 42 per cent, respectively. The overall evaluation of the study area revealed very high variation on the fertility status.