Physico-chemical characterization of some agricultural soils in Moradabad district, Uttar Pradesh, India

Soil physicochemical characterization helps determine soil nutrient levels, aiding in fertilizer control, soil quality improvement, and assisting farmers in understanding economic productivity and food production.Physicochemical parameters are fundamental to soil research because they influence soil and crop health.Physicochemical characteristics studied, (from April 2022 to July 2023) were pH, E. C, W.H.C, soil temperature, O.C, N, P,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] composite soil samples were collected from different 8 administrative blocks and analysed by using standard laboratory techniques at Moradabad soil and culture laboratory.pH of soil across the sampling sites ranged between 7.03 to 7.40 and min.pH was reported from BT-JSP-1 and MP-JSP-2 block as 7.03 that represent neutral status and max reported from CH-JSP-3 and MP-JSP-2 as 7.40 with little alkaline nature.7.06 pH (0-10cm) was reported from MP-JSP-2 block of Moradabad sub-division and 8.07 pH at (20-30cm) from CH-JSP-3 block of Kanth subdivision.E.C. ranged from 0.40 to 0.88 dSm -1 that represents the min.value for seed germination in district.(0-10cm) 0.46 dSm -1 reported from MP-JSP-2 block and 0.89 at (20-30cm) from DL-JSP-8 block.Available nitrogen content varied from 71.24 to 103.56 kg ha -1 , (0-10cm) 73.19 kg ha -1 nitrogen reported from BL-JSP-5 and 39.87 kg ha -1 (20-30cm) from KN-JSP-6.Available phosphorus content varied from 13.66 to 23.50 kg ha -1 , 13.78 kg ha -1 (0-10cm) reported from TK-JSP-7 block and 9.45 kg ha -1 (20-30cm) from TK-JSP-7 and the potassium content is 159.10 to 217.91 kg ha -1 , 213.95 kg ha -1 (0-10cm) from BT-JSP-1 block and 151.17 kg ha -1 (20-30cm) from TK-JSP-7 block.Phosphorus ranged represents the low soil status of the district and potassium content ranged show the medium status of soil.The organic carbon values fluctuated from 0.26 to 0.51 % that represents the low value status of district soil profile.W.H.C. of the different blocks was ranged from 22.85 to 54.28% and soil temperature ranged 10.1 to 25.2 0 C. Concluded, fertilisers administered during crop establishment may cause uneven nutrient distributions and varying parameter concentrations in soils.The findings suggest that more development is required to enhance soil quality by using improved cropping strategies rather than continuous cropping.Soil in Moradabad is nutrient imbalanced in all the blocks.It can be restored by providing enough amounts of certain nutrients and controlling the use of chemical fertilisers in the soil.The use of organic manure instead of chemical fertilisers can improve soil health and boosts nitrogen concentrations.This study can help discover crop compatibility and cropping calendars in different agroecosystems in the Moradabad district.