Characterization of Spatial Variability of Soil Properties of Malda District in West Bengal, India

Understanding soil fertility status is crucial for fertilizer management and sustainable crop production. A study was conducted in the Malda district of West Bengal in 2019 to evaluate the nutrient status of surface soil. A total of 45 composite surface soil samples were collected at a depth of 15 cm, and the actual location of the sampling sites was detected by GPS. The soil fertility parameters such as soil pH, available nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), available potassium (K), organic carbon (OC), electrical conductivity (EC), available boron (B), available zinc (Zn), available iron (Fe), available manganese (Mn), available copper (Cu), and available sulfur (S) were analyzed and categorized as low, medium, and high using nutrient index (NI). The spatial distribution of parameters was mapped by inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation method. The coefficient of variation (CV) showed that P, K, EC, B, and Cu were highly heterogeneous (CV > 33%). The soil pH reveals that most of the surface soil samples of the study area are neutral and slightly acidic. Available phosphorus, potassium, iron, manganese, and sulfur are more or less satisfactory, whereas widespread deficiencies were observed for nitrogen (54.25%), organic carbon (65.76%), boron (100%), zinc (64.31%), and copper (7.5%) in the study area. More precisely, multinutrient deficiencies were observed in Barind region of the study area that noticeably influenced the productivity of crops.