SOIL FERTILITY ASSESSMENT, MAPPING AND FERTILIZER TYPE RECOMMENDATION FOR FARTA, FOGERA, AND GONDAR ZURIA DISTRICTS IN NORTHWESTERN AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Overview
Cite Work

Abstract:

Detailed characterization of agricultural landscapes and knowledge on soil spatial variability induced soil fertility differences are crucial for developing site specific, profitable and sustainable nutrient management. In view of this, landscape characterization and soil fertility assessment studies were conducted on the agricultural lands of the Amhara National Regional State, northwestern Ethiopia in the year 2014. Semi-structured questionnaire and personal observations were used to collect the required biophysical data from the study sites. Soils (n=470), and some selected crop plant (n=89) samples were collected from spatially stratified grid points (3 km by 2 km) and were analyzed in the laboratory following standard procedures. The soil analytical results were subdivided into training set (70%) and test set (30%) just before semivariogram models that are appropriate to the soil parameters were selected and fertility mapping by ordinary kriging method was commenced. The results indicated the prevalence of five different agro-ecologies in a comparatively small (3385.17 sq. km) geographic area and related growth of diversified crop types. Slope class differences significantly (p < 0.01) affected the status of selected soil properties in all the six slope gradient classes. Six soil types, identified based on soil color, occupy the majority (72%) of the study area and showed significantly different (p

Read Download

SOIL FERTILITY ASSESSMENT, MAPPING AND FERTILIZER TYPE RECOMMENDATION FOR FARTA, FOGERA, AND GONDAR ZURIA DISTRICTS IN NORTHWESTERN AMHARA REGION, ETHIOPIA

Related Works